Michael Byers and Steven Staples address the national media at the Charles Lynch Room in Parliament, Dec 3, 2009
On national issues, reaching the Parliamentary Press Gallery is essential. As part of your broader communications strategy, every organization needs to reach Ottawa journalists by holding a press conference in Parliament.
Last week, the Rideau Institute did just that with Prof. Michael Byers, raising the issue of the treatment of Afghan prisoners before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Check out CBC.ca’s Kady O’Malley’s live blog of the event, and all of the comments it generated.
To press our point, we organized a media conference in the Charles Lynch Room, 130S, right in Centre Block of Parliament. Take a look at the picture above, and you’ll immediately recognize the room from countless television clips of press conferences by leading officials and organizations.
Notices of press conferences are sent to practically every journalist in Ottawa (see this great list of Parliamentary Press Gallery members). While the press conference is underway, a video feed is delivered to newsrooms and offices throughout the Parliamentary precinct. From time to time, the news networks will carry your press conference live, direct from the Charles Lynch Room, with a flip of the switch
Our press conference this week was a great success with CBC.ca’s Kady O’Malley “live blogging” from the press conference, and Canadian Press including it in its coverage. You can see more photos on our Flickr site, and download a copy of the letter we released calling for an inquiry by the ICC of the matter.