Video archives and written records of what was said

Two records of the same words

The written record is an edited account. The Parliament of South Africa describes Hansard as substantially verbatim, with repetitions and redundancies omitted and obvious mistakes corrected ⁸. Canada's House of Commons Debates are a report in extenso with due regard to necessary grammatical or editorial changes ². UN verbatim reporters correct grammatical errors and clarify the order of presentations without changing the meaning ³.

A video or audio archive keeps the delivery. It shows pauses, interruptions, words lost in the written record and the exact wording before editing. It does not show later corrections, and it may not show what an official translation says.

Canada: the electronic Hansard

A Canadian House committee report presented in 1972 discussed an electronic Hansard, in which radio and television coverage would be a faithful record of proceedings in the same sense as the written Debates ¹. On 25 January 1977 the House approved broadcasting on principles similar to those governing the printed official reports, and coverage of the House began on 17 October 1977 ¹.

The Debates themselves are compiled using the audio recording of the proceedings ². The ParlVU service offers live and on-demand video from the Chamber and televised committee rooms and audio from other public committee meetings ¹. Members can view proceedings in French, English or the floor language, which is the actual language of debate without interpretation, and broadcasters carrying CPAC offer French, English or floor sound ¹. Since 1991 Question Period has been broadcast with English closed captioning, and since 22 October 2007 with French closed captioning ¹.

United Nations: sound recordings to written record

The UN Verbatim Reporting Service says its reporters once had to attend all meetings but now work from digital sound recordings transmitted electronically ³. They verify quotations, insert references and check facts against the documentation of the body concerned ³.

Each language version of a verbatim record contains the statements delivered in that language plus translations of speeches given in the other languages ³. A quote from a speech delivered in one language and reported in another is a translation, so the original language version is the one to check against a recording.

United Kingdom, Kenya and India

UK House of Commons select committee sessions are broadcast live and recordings of past public meetings are available at parliamentlive.tv ⁶. A transcript follows a few days after the hearing ⁶.

Kenya's Standing Order 250 provides that proceedings of the House and its committees may be broadcast ⁴. The National Assembly Hansard page links each sitting, including separate morning and afternoon sittings, to a plenary video ⁵.

India's Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act, 1977 extends its protection for substantially true reports of proceedings to reports broadcast by wireless telegraphy ⁷.

Using both to check a quote

• Find the written record for the date and sitting, and note whether it is a draft or final version ^2,4.
• Open the video or audio for the same sitting and find the passage ^1,56.
• If the words differ, check whether the change is editorial, such as grammar or repetition, which the rules allow ^2,38.
• If the speech was delivered in another language, compare against the floor language, not the interpretation ^1,3.
• State in the published check which version was used, with its date.