The Legislative Yuan yesterday said that legislative proceedings will be broadcast on national television and the Internet starting at 9am today.
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) made the announcement at a news conference in Taipei with the attendance of legislators, saying that the broadcast of proceedings represents “a concrete and practical action” toward achieving transparency and establishing democratic control over the government.
The proceedings are to be aired on TV channels belonging to FTV (民視), GTV (八大) and NIO-TV (冠軍) through the nation’s main cable networks and Chunghwa Telecom’s (中華電信) Multimedia On Demand service, and will be streamed online on 14 platforms, Su said.
Photo: CNA
“There will be no lag between the people and the legislature... We have opened the windows to let the sunshine in,” Su said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the launch marks the “arrival of a new era” and will “bring greater transparency to the legislature.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jonny Chiang (江啟臣) said that his constituency told him that they could not see him on TV and that they only saw legislative proceedings when something negative and chaotic had occurred.
“Only through transparency will we avoid being defamed,” Chiang said.
New Power Party caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said he is happy that the Legislative Yuan has “opened its windows and doors,” adding that he believes the broadcasts will help “deepen democracy” and allow Taiwan to become “the democratic exemplar of the Hua people [華人].”
However, the first broadcast today might be “somewhat boring,” as there will be a reading of 260 itemized reports and contents of seven agendas — a usual procedure on the legislative floor on Fridays — which could take a couple of hours, Hsu said.
There will be brilliant things happening in the legislature, but giving oversight to the legislature is “a time-consuming task” and reform must done slowly and steadily, Hsu said.
People First Party Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) hailed the launch as a positive development, saying that the broadcasts will be beneficial to small parties.
“The people will have more platforms to see the small parties in addition to the [major parties such as] the KMT, DPP and others, and the [broadcasts] will help the Legislative Yuan to reclaim its reputation,” she said, adding that lawmakers welcome the opportunity to be the stars of their own Truman Show, referring to a movie where Jim Carrey’s character is the unwitting subject of a TV show.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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