CNA gets new leadership

Former Government Information Office (GIO) chief Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) yesterday took over the chairmanship of the Central News Agency (CNA), Taiwan's only national news agency, promising to make it more professional.

Former TTV president Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝) became the agency's new president.

In a board meeting yesterday, Hu appointed the news agency's current editor-in-chief, Lee Wan-lai (李萬來), as deputy president.

With the CNA struggling to find direction and suffering financially, the new leadership promised to reform the agency.

"The news agency's reform is very similar to Taiwan's democracy struggle," Su said. "We will try our best to make it more professional."

Hu said he wanted the news agency to improve the role CNA plays as the nation's news agency, and to include more high-tech communication channels in its services.

But he told the Taipei Times he would need more time to set policies for the future.

Su and Hu are the latest senior DPP figures to take over the leadership of major state-owned organizations.

Pro-DPP businessman and former head of the Aurora Group Kuo Chin-tsai (郭進財) was recently named as head of Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油); former DPP secretary-general Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) has taken over at Taisugar (台糖), and former DPP lawmaker Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) is now chairman of the Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp (台鹽).

Su has been a reporter since the late 1980s and has served as executive editor of the Independence Morning Post and a chief editorial writer at the Taiwan Daily News.

Hu worked closely with Su while Hu was a reporter, news editor and editor-in-chief at the Independence Evening Post.

An employee of the news agency who declined to be identified said that he welcomed the new appointments.

"Both of them are professional journalists. President Su even fought for our budgets in the Legislative Yuan when he was the director of the GIO," the employee said.

CNA was founded in 1924 in Guangzhou and moved to Taipei with the KMT government in 1949. It become the national news agency in 1996.

It provides news stories in Chinese, English and Spanish to news organizations around the world.

Su replaced Hsiao Teng-tzang (蕭天讚), who retired after two four-year terms.

Hu took over from Billy Wang (汪萬里), who retired after a four-year term.