The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) recently raised eyebrows by nominating several of its legislators to fill vacant positions on the board of the Public Television Service (PTS, 公共電視), whose members are supposed to be drawn from among “impartial members of the community.”
The KMT’s move is surprising and possibly unlawful for two reasons. Although legislators can point to the support of part of the electorate, I doubt that the KMT legislators could claim with any conviction that they fit the definition of “impartial members of the community,” as required by Article 13 of the Public Television Act (公共電視法).
The KMT has been around for more than 100 years. Could its members really be unaware that society long ago agreed on the meaning of the expression “impartial”? To be sure, the description does not apply to government officials and legislators.
There is nothing wrong with legislators directly reviewing board member nominations, but only on condition that the law is first amended to allow it. But this is not on the KMT’s agenda.
This is a fine example of how government officials, whether from the KMT or the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), frequently flout regulations, scorn the law and abuse their power. Their nasty habit of pulling the wool over the public’s eyes stands in the way of social progress.
The other surprising thing about the KMT’s action is that nominating new members to the boards governing public radio and television is not an urgent task.
The government’s insistence that new board members be appointed now suggests that it is not interested in respecting the system.
Prior to the scheduled board election two years from now, the most important issue for public radio and television is for the government to put forward its vision, along with complementary legislation, systematic organization and funding plans.
This can include consideration of whether or not Article 13 and other parts of the Public Television Act need to be amended.
The KMT should not rush into promoting and replacing PTS personnel, especially when the legal basis for doing so is in doubt.
What the ruling party should be doing in the next two years is creating beneficial links and lines of communication between various sectors of the media — including radio, television and cinema — facilitating research and information in the field, consolidating systems and structures, finding and deploying talent and supporting the industry with suitable legislation.
In recent months the Taiwanese movie Cape No. 7 has made more money at the box office than any locally produced film in a decade. Heartening as this may be, the question now is how to keep the ball rolling. Everyone hopes the movie’s success will be more than just a flash in the pan and the public expects the government to play its part wholeheartedly.
How is this to be achieved? Although the system in Taiwan is not geared for it, precedents are to be found in other parts of the world.
In many countries, public television serves as a training ground where talented people in both television and cinema have the opportunity to hone their skills.
This is how it works in Britain and other European countries and also in South Korea and Japan.
In the US and Hong Kong, public television services are less developed compared to the powerful commercial stations, but there, too, television and cinema work in concert.
Public policy cannot decide whether privately owned TV stations will follow the example of their US and Hong Kong counterparts, but the KMT should concern itself with the role played by public television and ensure that it is well run and enjoys healthy growth.
Orz Boyz, another outstanding new movie, came out around the same time as Cape No. 7 and has also been doing well at the box office. A Japanese distributor has bought rights to the film for a figure running into the millions of NT dollars and Japan’s public broadcasting service NHK will eventually show it on TV. Worthy of note is that Orz Boyz director Yang Ya-che (楊雅喆) has spent much of the past decade making drama series, one-off plays and documentaries for television, including PTS.
As Yang said: “Television is cheap to do, but gives you a lot of opportunity for training.”
In this one sentence, Yang summed up the important contribution television can make to the film industry.
Feng Chien-san is a professor in the Department of Journalism at National Chengchi University.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON AND JULIAN CLEGG
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