THE PLANNING tribunal has given an assurance that video recordings of hundreds of witnesses will never be released.
In its first public statement in three years, the tribunal said yesterday electronic recordings of evidence taken over a seven-year period have never been shown or released to any third party and never would be in the future.
The existence of a camera recording of evidence given by witnesses since 2002 was not widely known until recently. However, the tribunal said there were occasional references to electronic recordings during public hearings.
The camera recording the witnesses was clearly visible at all times, it claimed. The statement posted on the tribunal’s website said evidence had been electronically video/audio recorded since 2002 and “for internal use only”.
The recording proved useful on a number of occasions in correcting errors to the transcript prepared by stenographers, it said.