Brighton and Hove city councillor faces suspension over YouTube footage (From The Argus)
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Brighton and Hove city councillor faces suspension over YouTube footage
3:54pm Friday 9th July 2010 in
A councillor is facing suspension for putting webcasts of council meetings onto YouTube.
Jason Kitcat, who is a green Brighton and Hove City Councillor representing Regency ward, stood before the Standards Committee Assessment Panel this morning accused of being in breach of the Members Code of Conduct.
The complaint was made by Councillor Ted Kemble in February 2009 and relates to five video clips posted by Coun Kitcat on YouTube.
Three of the clips feature Coun Kitcat asking councillors Mary Mears and Geoffrey Theobald about matters relating to communal bins and their responses. All the clips are from Cabinet and Full Council meetings which took place in December 2008 and February 2009.
This "highly" edited clip shows Geoffrey Theobald and the Mayor.
Coun Kemble complained that Coun Kitcat had 'failed to treat his fellow councillors with respect, by posting the clips without the prior knowledge or express permission of Councillor Theobald or Councillor Mears; and had abused council facilities by infringing the copyright in the webcast images'.
The investigator's report found that he had not treated councillors with disrespect or broken the reasonable requirements of the council in using the clips.
However, it did find that his use of the video was political and improper, particularly in regard to the fifth, "highly edited" clip, which shows Geoffrey Theobald saying he wished he could sometimes answer questions, and the Mayor agreeing with him.
The panel also found Coun Kitcat in breach of the code and have asked him to send a written apology to Coun Theobald. He has also been told to undertake training on the Members Code of Conduct.
Coun Kitcat denies breaching the code of conduct and has said he will appeal the panel's decision.
A council spokeswoman said Coun Kitcat would face suspension until the apology had been sent but that he had 28 days to appeal the decision.
She added that the training would have to be undertaken within three months, although this excluded the appeal period.
Comments(31)
davyboy
says...
4:28pm Fri 9 Jul 10
MoreMikey wrote:good point! it strikes me that Coun Kemble is trying to cover up something. why can't all council meeting be public, so that the taxpayers know how their money is being spent.
For goodness sake, aren't the councillors performing public work? What do they have to hide?
TheInsider
says...
4:46pm Fri 9 Jul 10
Those councillors making the complaints clearly have something to hide.
I would like live streaming of council meetings as a matter of course so we can actually see what our elected members say and get up to.
ghonda
says...
4:48pm Fri 9 Jul 10
Jo Wadsworth
says...
5:06pm Fri 9 Jul 10
http://www.brighton-
hove.public-i.tv/sit
e/
yorkie44
says...
5:16pm Fri 9 Jul 10
davyboy wrote:These comments miss the point entirely. One thing about B&HCC is that the council meetings are open to the public and the public can ask questions. The council also published the minutes of the meetings and the meetings are broadcast live on the council's web site.
MoreMikey wrote: For goodness sake, aren't the councillors performing public work? What do they have to hide?good point! it strikes me that Coun Kemble is trying to cover up something. why can't all council meeting be public, so that the taxpayers know how their money is being spent.
The main issue here, as far as I can see, is that Kitcat edited the recording and used these for political purposes. He should stand down as a councillor in my view.
TheInsider
says...
5:30pm Fri 9 Jul 10
bug eye
says...
6:16pm Fri 9 Jul 10
ntaeous and misleading, and therefore untrue. he should go.
leobrighton
says...
6:23pm Fri 9 Jul 10
Le Chiffre
says...
7:18pm Fri 9 Jul 10
No one has a problem with steaming - because you see EVERYTHING, not just one person's point of view.
I think he's bang out of order putting edited clips on YouTube, and deserves to be censured for doing so.
Even though I hate the Tories with a passion, this is not the way to go about making them look stupid. They do that without anyone's help!
stan bailey
says...
10:18pm Fri 9 Jul 10
Greyrun
says...
10:22pm Fri 9 Jul 10
Cllr_Jason_Kitcat
says...
10:40pm Fri 9 Jul 10
regards,
Cllr Jason Kitcat
Numptyone
says...
11:30pm Fri 9 Jul 10
.com/in/jasonkitcat) he knows how easy it is to falsify / edit digital information.
He knew what he was doing. The meetings might be public but to be covertly recorded like this is very underhand and pathetic.
cheezburger
says...
12:10am Sat 10 Jul 10
ng. I dont believe in a 'locked doors' policy. If the footage has not been edited to give it a particular slant then thats fair enough. Was this filmed covertly though, and by this i mean a hidden camera? because it is quite easy to see if soemone is holding up an iphone and videoing you, and if you arent happy you say so at that point. I wonder if video has the same copyright law as photography, as in the photographer owns the photo, not the subject. This does seem like its being overblown and used for political point scoring against Mr Kitcat.
CharlotteP
says...
1:09am Sat 10 Jul 10
cheezburger wrote:This wasnt covert filming - Brighton and Hove webcast their meetings and the webcasts are available for anyone to view on their site - either live or archived (as it says above!)
I dont know much about mr Kitkat apart from what i read on hiw Twitter feed, seems like a fairly decent guy to me. We should have open and honest government/councilli
ng. I dont believe in a 'locked doors' policy. If the footage has not been edited to give it a particular slant then thats fair enough. Was this filmed covertly though, and by this i mean a hidden camera? because it is quite easy to see if soemone is holding up an iphone and videoing you, and if you arent happy you say so at that point. I wonder if video has the same copyright law as photography, as in the photographer owns the photo, not the subject. This does seem like its being overblown and used for political point scoring against Mr Kitcat.
Tony Davenport
says...
8:29am Sat 10 Jul 10
Tony Davenport
cheezburger
says...
8:56am Sat 10 Jul 10
CharlotteP wrote:Yes but it isnt the webcast they are talking about is it, its Mr Kitcats own footage.
cheezburger wrote: I dont know much about mr Kitkat apart from what i read on hiw Twitter feed, seems like a fairly decent guy to me. We should have open and honest government/councilli ng. I dont believe in a 'locked doors' policy. If the footage has not been edited to give it a particular slant then thats fair enough. Was this filmed covertly though, and by this i mean a hidden camera? because it is quite easy to see if soemone is holding up an iphone and videoing you, and if you arent happy you say so at that point. I wonder if video has the same copyright law as photography, as in the photographer owns the photo, not the subject. This does seem like its being overblown and used for political point scoring against Mr Kitcat.This wasnt covert filming - Brighton and Hove webcast their meetings and the webcasts are available for anyone to view on their site - either live or archived (as it says above!)
PeteBrighton
says...
9:08am Sat 10 Jul 10
Tony Davenport
says...
10:35am Sat 10 Jul 10
PeteBrighton wrote:Green MP supports violence? Is this a reference to the story Labour tried to put around locally that Caroline Lucas advocated violence and that it was one of her supporters that chucked green slime over the equally slimy Peter Mandelson? It's not true.
Great lot these greens, this guy does this, the green mp supports violence, sooner labour gets back in locally and nationally the better. Bring on the next election!
It was put about by, and probably hatched by, the Brighton Pavilion Labour Chairman, a man named Peter Freeman. If I were feeling generous I might describe him as a "fantasist". He even had letters about this matter in The Argus - he's quite a one for black propaganda against political enemies. He also came up with the plot to claim that if the Tories were elected locally then they were going to put a car park under Montpelier Crescent. Well they did take control of the city, so where is the car park Peter?! Of course there never was such a scheme, except in Peter Freeman's head.
As for wanting Labour back locally frankly I'd sooner have the Tories. For their numerous failings at least they operate in a more transparent way. Labour regularly "fixed" things, such as the central parking zone scheme, or how about the Marina tower, where the Labour rebels who opposed it were chucked off the planning committee so that the Labour administration could force the scheme through?
If "fixing" things just doesn't do it for you, how about some liberal dollops of hypocrisy? It works like this: with Labour in power, they are pro-communal bins being shoved everywhere with no consultation with the residents. As soon as they are OUT of power suddenly they're putting out leaflets about how this is such outrageous behaviour by the Tories. Hilarious. Of course this is not an isolated incident.
So Labour back locally? No thanks.
Tony Davenport
Cllr_Jason_Kitcat
says...
10:52am Sat 10 Jul 10
I didn't change the content of any videos, I just cropped them to show a specific section of the proceedings, ie the interesting bits.
Copyright law allows for excerpts to be used under 'fair dealing' provisions. That is how I have used them. The council has not suffered any loss from the clips being on YouTube, in fact I've probably saved them some bandwidth.
Furthermore, as the council exists to serve the city's residents, the copyright is a public good - not something belonging to a commercial enterprise. So I don't believe there is any issue with my use of the clips in the way I have.
And I can categorically state that Caroline Lucas does not support violence. Peace is a core value of the Green Party which is why we have consistently opposed conflict in the Middle East, Afghanistan etc. We do support non-violent direct action.
regards,
Jason
Masterchav
says...
11:07am Sat 10 Jul 10
Cllr_Jason_Kitcat wrote:So you didn't EDIT them, you just "cropped" out the uninteresting bits?
This footage was not filmed (secretly or otherwise) by me. It is filmed by the council and broadcast on the council website.
I didn't change the content of any videos, I just cropped them to show a specific section of the proceedings, ie the interesting bits.
Copyright law allows for excerpts to be used under 'fair dealing' provisions. That is how I have used them. The council has not suffered any loss from the clips being on YouTube, in fact I've probably saved them some bandwidth.
Furthermore, as the council exists to serve the city's residents, the copyright is a public good - not something belonging to a commercial enterprise. So I don't believe there is any issue with my use of the clips in the way I have.
And I can categorically state that Caroline Lucas does not support violence. Peace is a core value of the Green Party which is why we have consistently opposed conflict in the Middle East, Afghanistan etc. We do support non-violent direct action.
regards,
Jason
Sounds like semantics to me.... which is what I would expect from the greens
Christophe Hawtree
says...
12:04pm Sat 10 Jul 10
The report does not make clear that Cllr Theobald himself was not fussed by the YouTube posting. So there is evidently more dissent within the Tory party.
So why doesn't Cllr Kemble create an incisive, wide-ranging and informative blog such as Jason Kitkat's? Ah, of course, if anybody looked at the Council streaming of Cllr Kemble, they would find somebody mumbling through, without any intonation, a prepared-by-others speech that defies any listener to take in what is being said.
Cllr Kemble should wake up to the fact this is fast-changing world and that residents welcome councillors as savvy and energetic as Jason Kitkat.
The place for back-seat passengers is in one of Cllr Kemble's taxis.
I can envisage this fiasco doing the Tories special damage. They never learn.
saveHOVE
says...
12:57pm Sat 10 Jul 10
Sometimes I go to meetings for saveHOVE and sometimes for other reasons and I have been present when Cllr Kitcat's unrelenting barrage of probing questions have gone Cllr Theobald's way. Cllr Theobald's arms would flail, his speech hit near falsetto levels and spill out in exasperation. Like most of the Conservative councillors and the labour ones too, Cllr Theobald has little depth of knowledge about anything.
Councillors do almost no work of their own. They just parrot off what officers tell them to say. Ask a question not in the script and they are trapped and usually say " I will provide a written response". Which means they will get an officer to answer the question cause they sure can't.
At all council meetings it is obvious that the Greens are worker bees who actually look into things and have something to say! They are sometimes off-piste and reckless and too left-wing for me in many ways but Cllr Kitcat's questions to Cllr Theobald have always been importantly relevant and Cllr Theobald would just flail and scream at him.
Since Cllr Kitcat's copying of selected bits of webcast action from Cllr Theobald which went on YouTube and which Cllr Theobald referred to in a Council meeting, I have to tell you that Cllr Theobald's flailing and shrilling have all but ceased.
Cllr Kitcat did Cllr Theobald a great favour in making him aware of his flawed "performances". It did him good and he has been a model of calm in my recent experiences of his meetings. He has also been providing more genuine responses too, actually in his own words, using his own thoughts and not grandstanding like he is still a worthwhile orator. He is not.
ghonda
says...
1:07pm Sat 10 Jul 10
Music Lover
says...
1:15pm Sat 10 Jul 10
The recent story regarding the councils refusal to account properly for expenditure on so called specialists; i;e outsourced "consultants" is an absolute disgrace. I hope that this exercise makes everyone at the council realise that they aren't able to do what they want behind closed doors.
Good luck to Mr KitKat in doing what he did. So what if it was politically motivated? All councillors are politicians.
Andy R
says...
3:08pm Sat 10 Jul 10
PeteBrighton
says...
4:35pm Sat 10 Jul 10
yorkie44
says...
5:20pm Sat 10 Jul 10
simonjay1
says...
10:09pm Sat 10 Jul 10
ghonda
says...
12:51pm Sun 11 Jul 10
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MoreMikey says...
4:12pm Fri 9 Jul 10