Amendments to the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣播電視法) -- designed to turn two government-owned TV stations into independent, commercial operations -- remain stalled in the legislature.
The Legislative Yuan's education, technology and justice committees were scheduled to jointly review the amendments yesterday, but not enough lawmakers attended the joint meeting to form a quorum and it was cancelled.
Nevertheless, fierce debate over the future of Taiwan's media organizations erupted between legislators and the Government Information Office's (GIO) director-general, Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平).
In response to opposition lawmakers who claimed the DPP was manipulating the media, Su said, "Politicians should study these proposals and understand them before they criticize them."
The GIO proposal aims to create a new independent government authority to take control of the two government-owned stations and to operate them as independent, commercial operations -- as well as to ensure their impartiality.
Opposition lawmakers, however, vowed to push an alternative amendment of their own through the Legislative Yuan at its next full meeting to demand that the government sell its shares in Taiwan Television (
"We will pass a resolution at the next full meeting of the legislature to force the GIO to allow the Ministry of Education and Ministry of National Defense to sell their shares in TTV and CTS.
"We will keep pushing for our amendment until the law is changed," said People First Party (PFP) legislator Chou Hsi-wei (周錫偉).
"The GIO's proposal for these media organizations is just the first step in turning them into pro-DPP media organizations," said KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正).
"The DPP just wants to control the media," said KMT lawmaker Hung Hsiu-chu (
"It's deplorable for the government to propose the monitoring of news broadcasts by a body appointed by the government," Chou said.
The Executive Yuan has stated that it wants to adopt a measure first proposed by the Alliance for the Democratization of Terrestrial TV (ADTV).
The alliance has proposed that the government invest the funds necessary to allow TTV and CTS to operate as free-standing media outlets without any government subsidies.
Under the proposal, the two stations would be run as commercial ventures under the management of directors appointed by the government.
PFP lawmakers have instead proposed that regulations be adopted to force the government and political parties to divest their shares in media outlets and prevent political interference in such companies in the future.
The possibility that this proposal could be passed has increased dramatically as the KMT has also endorsed the plan.
Sisy Chen, who represents the KMT on TTV's board, yesterday said she planned to propose selling the party's stake in the station.
However, procedural maneuvering by other board members prevented Chen from even making the proposal.
Currently, 47.39 percent of TTV shares and 74.95 percent of CTS shares are held by the government, but the stakes in both companies long predate the DPP administration. TTV was founded in 1962 and CTS in 1972, both with funds from the then-KMT government.
"The question of whether shares should be sold is a complicated one and we should have more discussions before we take any decision on the issue," said Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), chief executive of the DPP legislative caucus.
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