Legislative Yuan to review changes to broadcast law

Amendments to the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣播電視法) aimed at forcing the government and political parties to sell their shares in terrestrial TV will be reviewed in the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday.

The opposition parties and the Cabinet are expected to be at odds over the issue and adopt diametrical positions.

People First Party (PFP) lawmakers suggested that regulations be added to restrict the government or political parties from managing or investing in broadcast and television industries and demanded that government or parties who own stock in the media relinquish their ownership within a year.

The possibility of this proposal being approved has increased dramatically of late as it received an endorsement from the KMT.

PFP legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), who proposed the amendment, said she is confident the motion will pass.

The Executive Yuan, however, has stated that it plans to adopt an idea proposed by the Alliance for the Democratization of Terrestrial TV (ADTV). The alliance has suggested that the government invest more money in TTV and CTS -- the two TV stations partly owned by the government -- but with the provision that the two stations be run as commercial ventures by an appointed professional manager or board of directors.

"The KMT holds the most resources in media organizations among political parties, but we think that the privatization of all the media organizations is a trend. We want to establish a clear separation between political influence and the media," KMT spokesman Justin Chou (周守訓) said.

Chou added that the KMT would sell shares of CTV if the new regulation states that political parties and government can only hold 10 percent of shares in media organizations.

Facing the coming challenge, the Executive Yuan and the ruling DPP have started coordinating to prevent the proposal from passing.

Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平), director-general of the Government Information Office, said the Executive Yuan supports the idea of eliminating political influence from the media, but that selling shares is not the best solution to the problem.

"We don't support the idea of selling the government's shares in TTV and CTS. We are going to coordinate with DPP legislators to prevent the proposal from passing," Su said

Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), chief executive of the DPP legislative caucus, said that the party would defend the Executive Yuan's decision in the Legislative Yuan Wednesday.

Currently, 47.39 percent of TTV (台視) shares and 74.95 percent of CTS (華視) shares are held by the government. The KMT owns 35.59 percent of CTV (中視) shares, while the boards of Formosa TV (民視) and Global TV (環球電視) are both chaired by DPP lawmakers.

The government's stakes in TTV and CTS long predate the DPP government.

TTV was founded in 1962 and CTS in 1972, both with investment from the then-KMT government.