![Members of the audience raise sad-face cards to show their dissatisfaction with the local government's performance at this year's third TV broadcast of Wuhan offi cials' annual briefi ng on their work on Dec 19. [China Daily]](U429P886T1D43055F12DT20121231085718.jpg "Members of the audience raise sad-face cards to show their dissatisfaction with the local government's performance at this year's third TV broadcast of Wuhan offi cials' annual briefi ng on their work on Dec 19. [China Daily]")
Members of the audience raise "sad-face" cards to show their dissatisfaction with the local government's performance at this year's third TV broadcast of Wuhan offi cials' annual briefi ng on their work on Dec 19. [China Daily]
Government officials in two cities have taken to standing in front of TV cameras and talking about their work in live broadcasts, a step experts said will help bring the government closer to the people.
Some, though, are wondering if it is all just a meaningless show.
Officials from Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province, were brought under scrutiny recently when questions about food safety and illegal construction were raised on a local TV program.
On Dec 17, the TV program showed a plate of meat covered in sauce being offered to a group of guests who included Qin Jun, deputy mayor of Wuhan, and Yang Zefa, head of the city's food and drug administration. It then broadcast video revealing that the dish had been prepared in unhygienic conditions and stored in the toilet of a cooked-food workshop.
"I felt angry and sorry after I watched this," Yang said . "How could food like that be offered on our tables?"
He made a public bow in apology.
Immediately after the show had aired, Qin Jun went in the company of law enforcement officials to investigate the store's conditions.
He Zhiqiang, a planner at the TV program, said the show attracted higher audience ratings than other programs broadcast at the same time. Even so, he said the show places a greater "value on social influence (than ratings)".
"The aim of the show isn't to solve individual problems," he said. "We're calling on the government to work out a long-term mechanism (that will prevent such problems from happening)."
Wu Zhongxin, spokesman for Wuhan's discipline inspection commission, said ordinary people should have an opportunity to evaluate the work of government officials at the end of every year. That was why, he said, they were invited to participate in the TV program.
"Some critics may say this kind of man-of-the-people style is an act, but it's the 'act' that solves grassroots problems and we should do more," he said.
In the meantime, 27 government department heads from Zhejiang province's Wenzhou talked about their work on Dec 20, both on Wenzhou Television and the Wenzhou News Network.
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