The government's failure to appoint members to the Public Television Service's (PTS) board before March 1, has resulted in confusion surrounding the station's future management, members of its supervisory committee said yesterday.
"With almost two month's delay, the Government Information Office (GIO) and the Legislative Yuan have not only violated the Public Television Law, but also shown their lack of concern about the station's interests," said Ho Te-fen (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
First proposed in 1980, PTS finally began broadcasting in 1998. A 10-member board and a five-person supervisory committee were set up to monitor the station's management and to elect its chairman, who would be in charge of forming the management team to run the station. As the three-year term for both the board and the supervisory committee came to an end this year, however, the GIO was supposed to recommend a list of new members and submit the list to a review committee whose members would be recommended by the legislature, for approval by March 1.
Director of the GIO Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) said that the cause of the delay was that the legislature had not established a review committee to select new board members. But Ho put the blame on both the GIO and the legislature, which, she said, recommended "mostly politicians, who try to interfere with the station's policies and personnel."
"Politicians exert their influence to control the media [and the PTS]. You can see how absurd it has become," Ho said, adding that the Public Television Law strictly forbids any government or party official from taking part in the selection process.
The New Party has nevertheless recommended its convener Hsieh Chi-ta (
"If a precedent [to allow politicians in the review committee] is set, it may endanger the station's reform and future programming policies," independent legislator Chu Hui-liang (
Despite the objections of Ho and Chu, the KMT-dominated legislature has agreed on the nominations of Chao and Lin, but remains deadlocked over that of Hsieh.
The delay has postponed the renewal of the station's management team. This has raised questions about the legitimacy of the current management team, which should have left office on March 1. The incumbent chairman Wu Feng-shan (
Despite all the difficulties, the clauses in the Public Television Law, which limit the PTS' funds, are likely to be erased during the current legislative session. Under the law, the government was obliged to subsidize the PTS in its first year of operation -- an appropriated budget of NT$1.2 billion -- and the subsidy was to be gradually reduced in subsequent years by a rate of 10 percent per year. In its sixth year of operation, the subsidy will be reduced by half to NT$600 million.
"The Cabinet will propose that the legislature delete these clauses and embrace the idea of maintaining the station's annual budget at a fixed amount of NT$900 million," Su said, adding that some legislators had expressed their support for such a proposal.
Echoing Su's view, both Chu and Ho said that PTS deserved the government's financial support to strive for excellence in programming instead of market share.
"It took the US' PBS 20 years to reduce the financial resources it received from the government by half. We should not be too strict with our own PTS," Chu said.
"As long as the PTS makes good use of its every penny to serve the interests of minority groups and the greater public, the budget's size -- whether NT$600 or NT$900 million, is not really the issue," Ho said.
However, Ho added that the station had allocated too much of its budget to certain items such as personnel costs and production. She said that the levels of the managing team's salaries, for example, were set years ago in accordance with the salary structure of Taiwan's three other terrestrial television networks. After cable television channels mushroomed in Taiwan, however, increasing competitiveness has been pressuring the three networks to gradually lay off unnecessary staff and cut back on generous staff salaries. But PTS's personnel structure remains unchanged as it is relatively protected from the worst effects of competition, she said.
A report prepared by the supervisory committee in mid-March suggested that the station should produce more locally-made programs rather than purchase foreign-made programs. It should also minimize the bureaucracy involved in the running of the station, and increase programs targeted at women, the elderly and other minority groups, the report concluded.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2