Sat, May 19, 2007 page8

• Editorial: This partisan NCC is out of control

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  The National Communications Commission (NCC), in fining SET-TV NT$1 million (US$30,000) for airing a 228 Incident documentary that contained erroneous archival footage, has shown that it cannot be trusted to conduct its affairs in an impartial, let alone intelligible, fashion.

  Its partisan decision amounts to an attack on freedom of speech -- in the sense that it intimidates media workers and program producers into a level of perfection that approaches the fantastic. No longer, it seems, is there the freedom to make mistakes that can be atoned for by an apology, a promise to do better and a damaged reputation.

  This chilling effect could turn out to be pronounced. The media make mistakes all the time in a variety of contexts. This inexactitude is an unfortunate fact of life for an industry with little time to maneuver. The question that follows in this brave new era is which mistakes will be picked up, by whom and for what political purposes.

  If each of the nation's media organizations -- regardless of political leaning -- are now to be held to this standard, we can expect a big increase in the number of incidents resulting in fines.

  It is not clear if the NCC's members have any concept of precedent. If they do, then their actions are a sinister throwback to a less liberal era and should be opposed by all media outlets. If they do not, then they are a sad joke and the agency should be addressed as such at every available opportunity.

  When the Government Information Office's role in monitoring the media was taken away, there were high -- perhaps naive -- hopes that the replacement would be a truly independent force, free of unreasonable influence from all political parties.

  Instead, the NCC is a politically partisan body because it is made up of people appointed by the parties in proportion to the number of seats each party has in the legislature. It therefore cannot be trusted to make judgments on media matters with the public as its primary interest, and even less so when media outlets attempt to address sensitive political matters.

  The NCC has been declared an unconstitutional body by the Council of Grand Justices, though for reasons only understood by the justices themselves it has been allowed to continue operations and will do for some time until the law is changed.

  The NCC's stupidity offers stark evidence of what will happen if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continues with its campaign to turn the Central Election Commission -- and any other body that requires expertise and independence to function properly -- into partisan agencies.

  And this is, indeed, yet another reminder that the ideological nature of the KMT has not changed since Taiwan democratized, and that many of its fellow travelers in academia and elsewhere are ready to turn back the clock as soon as a chance presents itself. Democracy, non-partisan institutions of state, due process: These terms are of no value to the hardliners that run the KMT except when used as political slogans.

  Appointees to the NCC who respect the principles of independence and separation of powers should quit and let the body conduct its affairs in an even more transparently biased and inept fashion. Those who stay and lend it the facade of a balanced executive agency will only further injure their credibility.
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