The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday backtracked on provisions it included last week in its approval of management changes at China Television Co (CTV) and CTi TV.
The move came after the China Times Group (中時集團) printed ads in newspapers accusing the NCC of abusing its authority.
The Want Want Group acquired the financially troubled media conglomerate in November. Want Want is Taiwan’s biggest rice cake and beverage maker and earns about 90 percent of its revenue in China.
The takeover in part sparked concerns that China would use its influence over the company to manipulate Taiwan’s media.
The NCC last week imposed conditions on the management reshuffle, including prohibiting management personnel, directors and supervisors from either TV station from concurrently holding similar positions at the other — a requirement that needed to be met within three months.
The commission also said each network should have at least one independent board director affiliated with neither the Want Want Group nor the China Times Group, the two stations’ parent firms.
The two stations’ ad, sales and programming departments were also required to remain separate and the networks were required to produce programming independently. They were also barred from jointly bidding for ad contracts.
CTV and CTi TV were also instructed to establish separate ethics committees within three months. Editorial and programming review personnel at each network were required to submit separate reports on quality control procedures to the NCC within three months.
The NCC also said that as CTV is a terrestrial TV service, no overseas or Chinese investment would be allowed, in accordance with the Broadcast and Television Act (廣播電視法).
For CTi TV, a cable network. the Satellite Cable Television Act (衛星廣播電視法) states that overseas investors may own less than 50 percent of shares.
The NCC said it would rescind its approval of the management reshuffle if either network violated the regulations on foreign investment.
The NCC’s moves drew a spate of criticism from the groups’ media outlets, including the Chinese-language newspapers the China Times and the Commercial Times, CTV and CTiTV, saying that the provisions had no legal basis and the NCC was discriminating by applying the rules to CTV and CTiTV alone.
However, NCC spokesperson Lee Ta-sung (李大嵩) said after a routine meeting yesterday that some commissioners proposed revising the conditions.
The NCC said the group must only “take note” of the conditions on foreign investment and management regulations.
It also modified the requirement for independent board directors to say that it was not a requirement but a suggestion.
For CTi TV, the requirement to produce programs in its own studios was changed to a suggestion as well.
The rest of the conditions, as well as the deadlines that both stations need to follow, remained unchanged.
Lee said that since CTV is a terrestrial TV service with a special operational license and a public trading firm, the commission set stricter requirements for it.
When asked if the adjustments were related to the attacks on the NCC, Lee said: “We [the commissioners] are still alive, our minds are still clear and we can still talk and joke about things.”
“We have heard [the criticism]. And what we’ve heard was the rational part of the discussion, which we took into consideration in making the adjustments,” he said.
Lee also said that after this particular experience, the commission would improve its approach to issues concerning media conglomerates.
“I can’t speak for the entire commission, but personally, I will be more cautious and seek to communicate with television service operators when I review a case,” Lee said.
Meanwhile, the commission responded to criticism from the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei, which listed the NCC’s reluctance to hold a dialogue with the private sector as a source of frustration in an annual Taiwan White Paper on Tuesday.
Lee said the impression that the NCC avoided such a dialogue could have to do with the fact that its meetings with AmCham had been short and had not gone as planned.
Lee said that he had personally received AmCham representatives and apologized on behalf of the commission for any confusion.
“We have begun to amend the regulations in the Broadcasting and Television Act, Cable Television Act [有線廣播電視法] and Telecommunication Act [電信法] as part of the commission’s endeavor to assist media in developing the infrastructure needed in the age of digital convergence,” Lee said.
Meanwhile, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday commented on the NCC controversy.
Liu said in a statement to reporters that the Executive Yuan had no comment at the moment on the NCC’s rulings as it is an independent statutory agency.
He said all government agencies should follow the law. People concerned or dissatisfied with NCC decisions may appeal, he said.
Asked to comment on a proposal by KMT lawmakers to establish an exit mechanism for members of the NCC as well as the state public prosecutor-general, Liu expressed reservations.
The Executive Yuan has spoken to some KMT lawmakers and told them that the issue “should be dealt with in a very circumspect manner,” he said.
The right to designate or remove government agency heads and officials rests with the executive branch, while the legislature’s power is to hold a confirmation vote on appointees to certain official positions, Liu said.
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