Letter: GIO double standards

In response to the on-going controversy over the foreign ownership of TVBS, I wish to point out a glaring example of double standards by the Government Information Office (GIO). For several years I have been suggesting to the GIO that Taiwan follows Hong Kong and Singapore in offering radio listeners 24-hour broadcasts from the BBC World Service.

But every time I raise my suggestion I am rebuffed with the excuse that allowing such broadcasts would breach the Satellite Broadcasting Law (衛星廣播電視法) that prohibits foreign-owned organizations from broadcasting in Taiwan. How then can the GIO permit TVBS to continue operating when its status as a foreign-owned entity mocks the same law? Worse still, TVBS continuously serves as a propaganda tool to batter national morale and encourage capitulation to China.

The victims of these double standards are the people of Taiwan who are currently deprived of the BBC World service, which carries the world's most informative, comprehensive, fair and critical broadcasts.

I urge the GIO to counter "TVBS-Radio Beijing" by opening up the air waves to 24-hour BBC World Service.

Curtis Smith
Taipei