Premiere

On Thursday evening, 21 February 2013, European Pirates got a new way to connect with Brussels and the European Parliament. Swedish Pirate MEP Amelia Andersdotter and her capable team have set up a regular streaming service so that Pirates and of course, any interested person can watch live and ask questions. The netcast started a bit late due to technical problems and there were a few interruptions as producer Tess Lindholm  tested different microphones and plugged the computer, used to do the filming, into the power supply before it powered down.

Data Protection

Amelia was relaxed and competent in outlining her work in committee on the data protection regulations, what they relate to and how the politicians are under the effects of of an industry “lobbystorm” and how the committee rejected the results of research made at the request of the committee and paid for by the European taxpayer. She also outlined how industry tricked MEPs into weakening data protection for EU citizens. This was even when small and medium sized companies prefer strong data protection as this saves them having to spend legal fees on trying to work out what legislation actually meant.

Viewer Questions

Viewers could ask questions over the chat provided on the bambuser.com site or over facebook and she spent most of the nearly 40 minute netcast giving answers that the normal citizen could understand in the fluent English that most Nordic people command. She baulked at only one question on how good dropbox was for data protection – not being an expert in cloud security.

A Regular Feature

The broadcast reached a live audience ranging from 16 at the start and 30 at the end. There was also a live audience in the room of about a dozen people. An hour after the broadcast had finished over 170 viewers had watched the recorded program which is “forever” available with the chat log as Elin Andersson, Amelia’s intern, told us and maybe later on youtube. The netcast will become a weekly feature – Thursdays at 18:30 CET and not only Amelia but other team members and hopefully other politicians will appear to explain their work and answer your questions.

Featured image: CC BY-SA Pirate Times

About Andrew Reitemeyer

I joined the Pirate Party of Lower Saxony in Germany in April 2012, once I found out that non citizens were welcome to join and become active members of the Party.
I joined the Pirate Times soon after it was started as a proof reader and am now an editor and author. Since then I have returned to my native New Zealand and joined the Pirate Party of New Zealand.
Politically I come from the libertarian left and have, up to now, not regarded any political party as having a solution for the democratic deficit that envelops the world. With the advent of the Pirate Party, which truly embraces grass roots democracy, I have found a political home. The Pirate Times is a way I can contribute to furthering the Pirate Movement around the world.
Skype: frithogar

 

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Premiere On Thursday evening, 21 February 2013, European Pirates got a new way to connect with Brussels and the European Parliament. Swedish Pirate MEP Amelia Andersdotter and her capable team have…