GUIDED BY OPENNESS:Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang, who organized the event, said he wanted to hear journalists’ opinions on the issue of transparency
Taipei Times
Date: Feb 26, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
Independent journalists were yesterday invited to the Legislative Yuan by
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang, center, yesterday hosts a forum to discuss ways to improve legislative transparency at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) to discuss possible solutions to the controversy surrounding their restricted access to the legislature.
The “Legislative Yuan Directions on Issuing Press Passes,” revised and announced on April 10, 2014, stipulates that only reporters from institutions registered as commercial companies and where national news constitutes at least 60 percent of their coverage are to be granted press passes.
Tsai said before the forum that the new legislature’s sole guideline on this issue is openness, and that he would like to listen to the involved parties’ opinions, especially for the achievement of a consensus on how transparency could be implemented with actual measures.
During the discussion, the journalists pointed out sundry existing measures they said are outdated and not conducible to the idea of transparency, but were not exactly on the same page when it came to how an “open legislature” could be realized in terms of distinguishing journalists — whether they be independent or from a registered institution — from the general public visiting for a sit-in. [FULL STORY]
