Redland City Council has put on ice live online broadcasts of meetings for six months.
The in-principle decision was made today, a week after the state government revoked a mandatory requirement for larger councils to broadcast meetings live via the internet.
In April, the council considered the broadcasts and, in May, decided to shift the 4pm general meeting to a 10am timeslot on the basis that meetings would eventually be "streamed" live via the web.
Estimated costs of the live web broadcasts were tabled for councillors in a confidential report at Tuesday's Corporate Services and Governance meeting.
An officer told the meeting, "technically" there were "no issues" with live broadcasts apart from purchase of hardware, software and staff to operate cameras during meetings.
However, he said councillors and others speaking at meetings were not protected by parliamentary privilege and the council would not cover costs of any defamation actions arising from a live broadcast.
He also said there were advantages of live web broadcasts including allowing island residents greater access to meetings.
For the full story, read Friday's Redland Times