The legislature finally made available on Friday its video-on-demand (VOD) system, which allows proceedings in all chambers to be broadcast live online and be accessible to the public.
The system allows people to watch legislative meetings live online or to access videoclips permanently stored in the system on-demand.
However, it soon came under fire: The system is designed to avoid broadcasting scenes whenever meetings degenerate into a melee.
FULL PICTURE
Some fear, however, that selective broadcasts could limit people’s understanding of what is going on.
For example, when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers criticized Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) on the legislative floor on Friday and demanded that he apologize for the economic situation, the VOD system showed a wall of the chamber and the sound was muted.
The VOD system was previously only available at the legislative building and legislators’ constituency offices across the country. Back then, no footage were cut.
DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said the new broadcasting system denied people their right to know what is going on at the legislature.
The director of the legislature’s Information Technology Department, Chen Shi-yang (陳熙揚), defended the practice, saying it was conducted in accordance with a consensus reached with the DPP caucus that controversial scenes be censored out of concern for the image of the legislature.
COMPROMISE
Legislative watchdog Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said the consensus was a compromise to get some lawmakers to agree to make the broadcasts available to the public.
Ho said his organization had received many complaints about the censorship on Friday, adding that the CCW hoped pressure from the public would help change the broadcasting rules.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the rules were established by a taskforce composed of four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and three DPP lawmakers and that similar rules had been adopted by other countries.
Whether the rules should be revised was open to debate, Wang said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS