A meeting will be held by the Taipei Press Club (TPC, 台北資深記者俱樂部) and the Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ,台灣新聞記者協會) today at 2pm to make another attempt to organize televised presidential campaign debates in the run-up to the March 18 election.
On Saturday, the two groups sent an official invitation to the three major presidential candidates -- KMT candidate Lien Chan (連戰), DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and independent candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) -- to invite them to take part in a televised debate on Feb. 27.
Since the idea of televised presidential debates was first launched, there has been no final decision on whether the candidates will accept an invitation to participate.
The TPC and the ATJ have replaced the "Cross-media Alliance" (跨媒體聯盟), which earlier attempted to sponsor televised debates, and are now in charge of the proposed debate.
The TPC is known for the integrity of its members, all of whom are top journalists in Taiwan; while the ATJ has successfully sponsored televised debates for the past two Taipei mayoral elections.
Ho Jung-hsing (何榮幸), a member of the executive committee of the ATJ, said he hopes all three candidates will join the debate, which is meant to provide voters with the best opportunity to decide who is qualified to be the country's next president.
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