Legislators advocate amendments to require District Councils to broadcast live meetings

Politics

Written by: Lin Jian

2019-12-11 16:58

The district councils are about to change. In the past, under the control of the multi-district councils, the democrats believed that some of the conventions were not transparent, the information uploaded to the Internet was insufficient, and the rules of each district were different. Legislative Council Member of Information Technology Mo Nai-kwong asked the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr. Lau Kong-wah, at a meeting today (11th), how to open up the data of District Councils to increase the transparency of operations and encourage public participation in district affairs, and whether it will consider amending the legislation District Council meetings are broadcast live.

Liu Jianghua replied that the current operation of the District Councils is quite transparent, and the current "Regional Council Practices" have not barred the public from broadcasting. The Government will closely monitor the operational needs of the District Councils to consider further opening up the data and uploading more useful information.

Mo Naiguang asked about the current status of the documents, meeting agendas, discussion papers, meeting records, members ’speeches, voting results records, appropriation-related information, benefit declaration records, activity review reports, and financial reports made available to the public by the district councils. How long does it take to upload to the website if it is not disclosed? What is the success rate of the current District Councils in processing information requests under the Code on Access to Information.

According to Liu Jianghua's information on the district boards of the 18 districts, the above mentioned information will be public or partially public. If it is not public, the reasons usually involved include sensitive information with closed-door meetings (such as internal administration, involving bidding and quotation, etc.). However, individual district boards, such as Kowloon City, Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, etc., do not upload activity review reports to the district board websites. In addition, the above data uploaded to the website are not in a "machine-readable format".

Mo Naiguang asked whether he would consider amending the District Councils Ordinance to require live broadcasts of District Council meetings to increase transparency. (Profile picture)

Liu Jianghua: "Regional Council Standing Orders" are not prohibited from broadcasting live

Mo Naiguang is also concerned about whether the Government will allow users to browse the information of DCs in a more user-friendly way; and whether it will consider amending the DC Ordinance to require DCs to broadcast their meetings live to increase operational transparency.

Liu Jianghua pointed out that the government has adjusted the design of the District Council website in 2017 so that citizens can use their mobile phones to browse information about the District Councils. At present, most of the documents on the District Council website are uploaded in DOC / DOCX format or PDF format produced by text files, so that the public can use search engines to search for information about District Councils. In addition, the Home Affairs Department Announcing its open data plan and uploading data sets on district boards to the information frontline website, including the list of district board members, the calendar of district board meetings, and the attendance records of district board members. The Government will closely monitor the operational needs of the district boards to consider further opening up of data.

Liu Jianghua pointed out that there is considerable transparency in the operation of District Councils. In addition to accessing various information of the District Councils such as meeting agendas, meeting documents, meeting recordings, meeting records, etc. through the District Councils homepage, citizens can also attend meetings on site. When important matters are discussed in the district boards, the media will also report widely.

Liu Jianghua did not respond directly to whether the amendments will be required to broadcast live broadcasts, but pointed out that the current "Regional Council Standards" issued by the Home Affairs Department for district boards' reference does not prohibit observers from broadcasting live during the meeting. Obstruct the meeting. District Councils allow observers to broadcast live meetings without prejudice to the meeting. It is also common for observers to broadcast district boards live.

However, the reporter checked the information, and the live broadcast of the district council meetings in some areas has caused controversy in the past. At the beginning of March this year, the Tuen Mun District Council discussed "Lantau Vision Tomorrow". Some members of the district council stated that the code of conduct of the district council stipulated that observers could not take pictures to prevent members of the civil society "Lantau Alliance" from shooting and Facebook broadcasting.

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