Out of date at Parliament

As a journalist, if I want to know which MP to contact for a comment on something I usually start at the Parliamentary website, which has a page listing the members of the various Parliamentary committees.

Imagine my surprise this week when I called the Chairman of one such committee only to be told that he no longer held that post (and hadn’t for some time). “But it lists you on the website” I said. “Oh, that’s out of date” came the reply!

Now, I’m not sure who is responsible for keeping these things up to date (I have a feeling it might be a very well paid civil servant), but surely someone at the House of Representatives checks these things?

If a website isn’t going to be kept up to date then there’s little point in it being there at all. Indeed, it’s far worse having incorrect information than having no information – especially when it purports to come from the very people who should know.

The European elections took place in 2009, yet MEP Eleni Theocharous is still listed as the Chairman of one committee and a member of another. Heaven knows how many other inaccuracies there are, but it shows the House of Representatives up as a slipshod outfit.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.