25. Admission of Additional Observers to Commission Meetings
(from "Chairman's Report of the Twenty-Fourth Meeting")
The Chairman stated that prior to the meeting he had received representations
that the Commission's meetings should be open to the world press and
interested members of the public.
He had considered this a serious request and he had asked for a poll of
Commissioners to be taken by mail.
Nine replies had been received: one in favour of open plenary sessions, two in
favour of limited open attendance, one reserved its position pending
discussion by the Commission, and five were opposed to granting the request.
Because one member country considered that the matter was too important to be
settled by mail poll an item had been put on the agenda to enable a discussion
to take place.
This was considered by the Finance and Administration Committee.
So far as the present meeting was concerned the majority view was that the
question had been determined by the mail poll and should not be further
discussed.
As to future meetings, the item on the agenda did not make it sufficiently
clear that it included the attendance of the press and as a result, under the
Commission's Rules of Procedure, this question could not be considered at the
present meeting.
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