Parliament’s image dips due to bribery allegation – Report

Parliament has suffered a major blow to its public image due largely to its recent appointments committee bribery allegations, a report by the Centre for Media Analysis (CMA), an independent media monitoring agency, said on Tuesday.

The report, compiled through CMA’s strategic analysis of print media news contents, called on the leadership of the august house and its communication managers to put strategic and pragmatic measures in place to re-affirm its renowned respect and image.

The Centre analysed the tone of 227 news stories on Parliament in 32 newspapers, comprising state and privately owned newspapers, published from January 2 to 31, 2017.

Out of the 227 news stories, 107 expressed negative sentiments about Parliament, representing 47 percent, 86 news stories were positive, representing 38 percent, and 34 stories were neutral, representing 15 per cent.

“News contents construct pictures in the minds of the public and, hence, this negative sentiment rating in the month of January was likely to affect Parliament’s credibility in the long run,” the report said.

The study, dubbed, Parliamentary News Analysis Index, forms part of the Centre’s detailed and on-going analysis of the first 100 days of the President, Ministers, Legislators and other arms of government and their agencies.