The Legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday passed a resolution asking the National Communications Commission (NCC) to withdraw its ruling on ERA TV’s variety channel (年代綜合台) and hold a second review of the case.
NCC Chairperson Su Herng (蘇蘅) said the commission respected the legislature’s decision, but added that the licence of ERA TV’s variety channel had been invalidated, not revoked.
Su said the licence was officially invalidated on Dec. 22 because the channel had repeatedly failed to distinguish between programs and commercials, one of the conditions set when the commission renewed the licence in February.
Another condition was to limit the program rerun rate to 60 percent of its daily content.
Su said ERA’s variety channel had accumulated 49 violations before its licence was renewed.
However, less than a month later, it broke the law again, she said.
Su said the commission’s decision was not meant to suppress freedom of speech and added that the government had not pressured it on the matter.
The committee was originally scheduled to inspect transportation facilities in Nantou County, but instead held a special meeting to review the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) regulations regarding the suspension of TV broadcasts and revoking of operational licences.
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) used the meeting to lash out at the commission.
DPP legislators Kuo Wen-cheng (郭玟成), Pan Men-an (潘孟安) and Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) accused the commission of breaking the law and abusing its administrative powers.
Kuo and Pan said the commission focused on ERA TV, while -allowing other channels to commit similar violations.
“You are purging the media under the banner of an independent entity, which is just like the Red Guards in China,” Pan said.
What the commission should do, Kuo said, is ban product placements, particularly from the government.
Kuan questioned the legality of the conditions set for renewing ERA’s licence. She said Article 6 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act, which the commission used to suspend the licence, did not authorize the commission to give conditional rulings.
“You [Su] kept saying that ERA committed 49 violations in the past six years, which you claimed was evidence of a serious offence,” Kuan said. “And yet, the channel passed its midterm performance evaluation and its broadcasts were not suspended [which leads me to believe that] this was not a serious offence.”
Article 6 regulates how operational licences should be renewed and under which conditions the commission can cancel or suspend a licence.
Kuan said Article 4 of the Enforcement Rules Governing the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法施行細則) was a “blank check” allowing the commission to operate at its own discretion.
KMT legislators Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), Tsao Erh-chang (曹爾忠) and Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) said there were flaws in the procedures adopted by the commission to invalidate the licence.
Tsai said the commission should not have restricted its authority by setting the conditions in the first place.
While recognizing ERA’s violations, Tsao said the penalty was disproportionate.
Tsai and Tsao accused the commission of taking away ERA’s licence without suspending its broadcast first, as stipulated in Article 39 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act.
Sun said Article 6 lists only general principles on licence renewals and does not list specific objective standards.
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