Press Gallery

The Québec Parliamentary Press Gallery is a non-profit corporation made up of the representatives of several media companies in Québec and Canada that cover political and parliamentary news. Its offices are housed in the National Assembly’s André-Laurendeau building.

The Press Gallery plays three major roles:

• it selects its own members and recommends their accreditation to the President of the National Assembly
• it provides services to the members of the corporation
• it defends the rights and privileges of its members.

Created at the outset exclusively for journalists, the Press Gallery has grown to include columnists, producers, technicians and researchers. Its members benefit from the Press Gallery’s services as well as those the National Assembly provides to all media.

The Press Gallery has evolved considerably over the years. Its members’ work methods also underwent transformations, in step with the rapid development of information technologies and the media.

A short history of the Press Gallery

Journalists have been attending parliamentary debates since 1792, when parliamentarism came into being in Québec, but it was only in 1871 that their association was officially recognized by parliament authorities. The Press Gallery became a non-profit corporation in 1958.

Long the exclusive realm of journalists from the written press, the Press Gallery welcomed its first radio and television correspondents into its ranks in 1959, just a few months after the death of Premier Maurice Duplessis, who was known to be wary of the electronic media. It was only in 1962 that the Gallery finally accepted women journalists into its ranks.

Parliamentary debates were first televised in 1978 on the National Assembly Channel. The relationship between MNAs and the electors, who could finally watch them on TV, would never be the same.

The television broadcasting of parliamentary debates rounds off the task of parliamentary journalists. The work of these journalists, who now have access to the debates and the Internet directly from their work station, is very different from that of the pioneers of 1792. Laptops, microphones and cameras have replaced the notepads used in the old days to report on the debates. The tools of the trade may have changed, but the role of the Press Gallery has not: it is still committed to informing the public.