Legislatures may choose to issue transcripts of the words spoken in their debates and proceedings. Unlike the journals of such bodies, which are merely the record of the votes and measures taken at a given meeting, or government gazettes, which are the records of the laws enacted by such legislatures, these transcripts are nominally a verbatim record of the words spoken on the floor. Such records can, and often have, been instead printed in private newspapers independent from the legislature itself.
It is much more effort to record the exact words spoken at a legislative meeting than to simply record the motions and votes, so transcripts as such are much less common than journals. In the British parliament, whose records date to the 14th century, transcribing the words spoken during parliamentary business became legal only in the early 19th century. At that time the Hansard began print, and even then was an incomplete record of the proceedings until the 20th century. Similarly, whilst the Canadian federal parliament has had a Hansard since its 1867 inception, its provinces largely did not adopt them until the late 20th century.
In the United States, the houses of Congress have maintained journals since their 1789 creation, a transcript of its debates did not begin until the 1824 Register of the Debates of Congress, whose successors began offering verbatim transcription in 1851 and evolved into the Congressional Record .
The proceedings of the British Parliament, and by extension those of colonies in the former British Empire and its successor the Commonwealth of Nations, is usually called Hansard after the early 19th century printer Thomas Curson Hansard.
Nova Scotia produced a Hansard from as early as 1855, but there was a gap between 1917 and 1951. New Brunswick started a Hansard in 1900. The Dominion of Newfoundland began printing a Hansard in 1909, which continued until the Commission of Government assumed control in 1933. After Newfoundland regained responsible government upon joining Canada in 1949, the production of Hansards restarted and continued to this day.
Manitoba began printing a Hansard in 1958, as did Quebec in 1964. Saskatchewan began recording a Hansard in 1947 with Dictaphone machinery. British Columbia likewise began tape-recording its debates in January 1970. Alberta was one of the two last Canadian provinces to begin printing a formal Hansard, doing so in 1972; prior to that time important speeches made in the Legislative Assembly were recorded in local newspapers and collected in a "Scrapbook Hansard", despite proposals for a recorded Hansard as early as 1919. [1] Prince Edward Island achieved a Hansard as late as 1996, the last province in Canada to do so.
Incomplete transcripts of debates in Congress prior to 1824 were assembled into the Annals of Congress between 1834 and 1856 from newspaper accounts, with speeches being paraphrased rather than verbatim. [2] Contemporary transcription came with the 1824 Register of Debates, but was still incomplete and paraphrasing until the succeeding Congressional Globe began approximating verbatim transcription in 1851; the Globe turned into the modern-day Congressional Record .
State legislatures likewise have had a rough history with transcription.
The Ukrainian parliament prints the Holos Ukrayiny as its official newspaper.
Hansard is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the Parliament at Westminster.
A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out a bill", and is characterized as a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body.
Question Period, known officially as Oral Questions occurs each sitting day in the House of Commons of Canada, in which members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers. According to the House of Commons Compendium, “The primary purpose of Question Period is to seek information from the Government and to call it to account for its actions.” It is similar in form to question time in other parliaments, mainly those following the Westminster system.
A court reporter, court stenographer, or shorthand reporter is a person whose occupation is to capture the live testimony in proceedings using a stenographic machine, thereby transforming the proceedings into an official certified transcript by nature of their training, certification, and usually licensure. This can include courtroom hearings and trials, depositions and discoveries, sworn statements, and more.
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Index is updated daily online and published monthly. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code authorizes publication of the Congressional Record.
The Florida Times-Union is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the Florida Union in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when the Florida Union merged with another Jacksonville paper, the Florida Daily Times. A Southeast Georgia edition, called The Georgia Times-Union, serves the Brunswick area.
Parliaments and legislative bodies around the world impose certain rules and standards during debates. Tradition has evolved that there are words or phrases that are deemed inappropriate for use in the legislature whilst it is in session. In a Westminster system, this is called unparliamentary language and there are similar rules in other kinds of legislative systems. This includes, but is not limited to, the suggestion of dishonesty or the use of profanity. Most unacceptable is any insinuation that another member is dishonourable. So, for example, in the British House of Commons any direct reference to a member as lying is unacceptable. A conventional alternative, when necessary, is to complain of a "terminological inexactitude".
Luke Hansard was an English printer. He printed the Journals of the House of Commons from 1774 until his death. His son Thomas Curson Hansard took over the business, and added the name "Hansard" to the title of the official reports of parliamentary debates and proceedings in 1829. This led to such reports in the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries being customarily known as Hansard.
Thomas Curson Hansard was an English pressman, son of the printer Luke Hansard.
The Telegram is a daily newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
The clerk of the United States House of Representatives is an officer of the United States House of Representatives, whose primary duty is to act as the chief record-keeper for the House.
The United States Senate has the authority for meeting in closed session, as described in the Standing Rules of the Senate.
A speech-to-text reporter (STTR), also known as a captioner, is a person who listens to what is being said and inputs it, word for word, as properly written texts. Many captioners use tools which commonly converts verbally communicated information into written words to be composed as a text. The reproduced text can then be read by deaf or hard-of-hearing people, language learners, or people with auditory processing disabilities.
The United States Senate Journal is a written record of proceedings within the United States Senate in accordance with Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution.
Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.
A transcription service is a business service that converts speech into a written or electronic text document. Transcription services are often provided for business, legal, or medical purposes. The most common type of transcription is from a spoken-language source into text such as a computer file suitable for printing as a document such as a report. Common examples are the proceedings of a court hearing such as a criminal trial or a physician's recorded voice notes. Some transcription businesses can send staff to events, speeches, or seminars, who then convert the spoken content into text. Some companies also accept recorded speech, either on cassette, CD, VHS, or as sound files. For a transcription service, various individuals and organizations have different rates and methods of pricing. That can be per line, per word, per minute, or per hour, which differs from individual to individual and industry to industry. Transcription companies primarily serve private law firms, local, state and federal government agencies and courts, trade associations, meeting planners, and nonprofits.
There were five important periods in the history of Canadian newspapers' responsible for the eventual development of the modern newspaper. These are the "Transplant Period" from 1750 to 1800, when printing and newspapers initially came to Canada as publications of government news and proclamations; followed by the "Partisan Period from 1800–1850," when individual printers and editors played a growing role in politics. The "Nation Building Period from 1850–1900," when Canadian editors began the work of establishing a common nationalistic view of Canadian society. The "Modern period" from 1900 to 1980s saw the professionalization of the industry and the growth of chains. "Current history" since the 1990s saw outside interests take over the chains, as they faced new competition from the Internet.
Voice writing is a method used for court reporting, medical transcription, CART, and closed captioning. Using the voice writing method, a court reporter speaks directly into a stenomask or speech silencer - a hand-held mask containing one or two microphones and voice-dampening materials. As the reporter repeats the testimony into the recorder, the mask prevents the reporter from being heard during testimony.
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) is the official name of the transcripts of debates in the New Zealand Parliament. New Zealand was one of the first countries to establish an independent team of Hansard reporters, 42 years before the British (Imperial) Parliament. An official record of debates has been kept continuously since 9 July 1867. Speeches made in the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council between 1867 and the commencement of Parliament in 1854 were compiled in 1885 from earlier newspaper reports, and this compilation also forms part of the New Zealand Hansard record.
Publications of minutes and proceedings, often known as journals, of legislatures are often kept for record-keeping. Unlike government gazettes which publish government notices and the like for general public dissemination, journals of these bodies merely records their proceedings and are not necessarily meant for the general public. Transcripts are more detailed, including a verbatim account of the debates on the floor.
Early American publishers and printers played a central role in the social, religious, political and commercial developments in colonial America, before, during, and after the American Revolution. Printing and publishing in the 17th and 18th centuries among the Thirteen Colonies of British North America first emerged as a result of religious enthusiasm and over the scarcity and subsequent great demand for bibles and other religious literature. By the mid-18th century, printing took on new proportions with the newspapers that began to emerge, most notably in Boston. When the British Crown began imposing new taxes, many of these newspapers became highly critical and outspoken about the British colonial government, which was widely considered unfair among the colonists.