Council’s webcasting policy set to be updated for modern day use

Wrexham Council’s outdated policy on who can access and use video clips from meetings is set to be updated to come into line with other councils, Westminster and the Senedd.

The Council’s Head of Democratic Services has undertaken a review of the current webcasting protocol which councillors will examine this week and probably put forward for approval – it can be read in full at the end of this report.

The move is a long way from 2013 when tweeting was still banned at one point, although now as was then, still pictures or video filmed by third parties will still be banned from inside a meeting.

The new policy is based around the ethos of the Council’s ICT & Digital Strategy 2017 – 2020, which talks about public engagement, ‘open data’ and transparency “….enabling others to share and use that data and increasing transparency of the Council by allowing stakeholders to understand the reasons for the decisions we make”.

There has been great debate over using common services such as Youtube for video storage, and public viewing. This new report confirms that the archives will be via the publici online system for 6 months and then placed on the Council’s own YouTube channel for what will in effect be perpetuity.

Minutes of meetings have been ‘slimmed’ and ‘limited’ since webcasting was brought in, however the protocol draft reiterates “webcasts do not replace the formal record of decisions made. The only formal record of decisions of a Local Authority is its minutes and agendas which are required to be maintained and retained for a number of years.”

The Protcol will still keep the webcasting power with the members of the meeting itself, so suspension of the meeting, exclusion of press and public, potential infringement of the rights of an individual or any other reason moved, seconded and supported by the Council/Committee could see the streaming stopped.

There has been some discussion over who owns the copyright of the footage shot, with it revealed accessing the archives could cost £75 from the third party contractor, the new Protcol clearly states: “The actual webcasts, archived material and copyright remain the property of the
Council. The use of video and audio clips from the Council webcasts is subject to that copyright and the terms set out below.”

Previously a meeting was told the current webcasting provider was looking to delete archives so councillors were keen on a longer term more sustainable option, finally it seems settling on Google’s Youtube product.

The new terms and conditions of use allows the public to ‘edit the content of downloaded clips into different formats to enable viewing and you may take steps to improve the accessibility of material, including the addition of captions and/or subtitles, subject to and in accordance with these terms”.

“Material must not be adapted, altered or manipulated in any other way.”

It is not explicitly clear if improving the accessibility would mean permission to republish the video on different publications and platforms, however later the word ‘reproduction’ is used’.

The terms go on to state: “Any downloading, reproduction and or use of Council copyright protected material is subject to the material being reproduced accurately, not in a misleading context and not in a manner that may bring the Council, Members or council officers into disrepute.”

This clause notes that “You may not use the material for the following”, including ‘satirical purposes’ and ‘financial gain’.

The full terms are in this document.

Members of the Democratic Services Committee will meet later this week to discuss the proposals before forming a recommendation to put forward.