The new term of the Legislative Council has changed from the usual practice. The minutes of some committee meetings no longer record members' speeches by name, and replace them with words such as "a member".
The Secretariat of the Legislative Council replied that the preparation method has been optimized, and the key points of the speeches of the participants have been streamlined and summarized to facilitate the public, members of parliament and officials to more easily grasp the meeting process, as well as the discussion points and responses of the agenda items.
However, the response did not address the reasons for not listing the names of MPs.
Under the new record method, it is difficult for the public to verify the identity of the speaking member based on the text of the meeting minutes, and they can only review the meeting fragments.
Xie Weiquan, chairman of the Development Affairs Committee, admitted that from the perspective of members, it would take a little more time to check the records to learn more about the speeches of other members, but he believed that the new approach was "difficult to judge whether it is good or bad."
The Hong Kong Journalists Association criticized that the concealment of the names of speaking members hindered media reports and weakened the public's right to know, "transferring the responsibility of ensuring the transparency of information in the Legislative Council to the public and the media."
The Secretariat refers to "optimization": it is easier to grasp the process and discussion points
The Legislative Council Secretariat explained that an appendix was added to the "optimized" meeting minutes, listing the time stamp of each participant's speech, and the public can view clips of speeches made by individual members or officials as needed.
The Secretariat also pointed out that according to the House Rules of the Legislative Council, committee secretaries are required to prepare meeting minutes in the manner determined by the committee.
The draft minutes of each meeting will be confirmed and passed at the next meeting, or will be confirmed after being reviewed by all members.
"Hong Kong 01" searched the website of the Legislative Council and found that in the current Legislative Council, the minutes of many committee meetings are delivered to the speakers with words such as "member", "member", and "government authority".
Although the last part of the meeting minutes "meeting process" marks the speaker's name or organization by time, it is really difficult to directly compare the content of the speech and the identity of the speaker based on the text records alone.
Journalists Association criticizes obstruction of information flow
The Association of Journalists believes that the relevant changes not only failed to facilitate the public to grasp the key points of the meeting, but also hindered the public from understanding the work of the members of the Legislative Council and weakened the public's right to know.
Omitting the names of speaking members will increase the difficulty of public identification. On the one hand, it will make it difficult for the public to hold the relevant members accountable, and it will also affect voters' voting intentions; omitting the names of speaking members will also hinder the media from reporting on the situation of the parliament.
The public and the media must read the video clips of the parliament according to the appendix in order to find out the speeches of individual members or officials.
The Journalists Association believes that the practice will transfer the responsibility of ensuring the transparency of the Legislative Council information to the public and the media, obstructing the flow of information, increasing the difficulty for journalists to interview and verify the identities of the speaking members, and failing to let the public and the media know about the incident from the relevant members in a timely manner. Describe the practice Very unsatisfactory.
Xie Weiquan said that it is a good thing that it is difficult to comment on the practice. He explained that members can quickly check whether their opinions have been recorded from the "meeting process", but it will take some time to understand the speeches of other members in detail.
(Photo by Liang Pengwei)
Xie Weiquan said that the good and the bad look at Chen Zhenying: Active speakers do not mind signing names
Xie Weiquan pointed out that he noticed that there was a new adjustment in the way of meeting minutes, and believed that under the new method, the opinions of members of the council are still recorded, but "we have to look at them separately."
He believes that it is difficult to comment on whether it is good or bad. As a speaking member, you can quickly check whether your opinion has been recorded in the "meeting process", but it is difficult to understand what other members have said.
The new recording method will not affect the Finance Committee and the Legislative Council meeting for the time being, because the meeting minutes of the meeting and the Finance Committee are "verbatim records", which clearly list the names of the speaking members.
Finance and Accounting Chairman Chen Zhenying pointed out that he held different public positions and found that different organizations have different recording methods. Some record with the names of members, and some only write "one member". I believe this time the Legislative Council may refer to the practices of other organizations and unify the recording methods. .
he thinks.
Whether an anonymous record is more appropriate is a matter of opinion, but I believe that Members who are more active in speaking will not mind the signed record.
When asked whether the "verbatim record" arrangement should be extended to all committee meetings of the Legislative Council, Xie Weiquan agreed that the "verbatim record" would be clearer, but worried that there would be a lot of information to be processed, and the secretariat would have insufficient manpower. almost needed.
Chen Zhenying pointed out that it is understood that the secretariat is studying the use of artificial intelligence software to assist in the writing of meeting minutes. The software will complete the first draft and then submit it to the secretariat for proofreading. It might even be simpler, but it might be harder for the reader to figure out the point.
Chan Chun-ying, chairman of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, delivered the annual work report.
(Photo by Liang Pengwei)
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