Wang Jin-pyng quits media post

Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday announced the resignation of his post at a Chinese-language newspaper, reacting to the Taipei Society's (澄社) urge to remove political and military influences from the media.

DPP Legislator Trong Chai (蔡同榮) voiced his opposition to the policy, arguing that the DPP could lose a seat at the Legislative Yuan.

As the DPP vowed to remove political and military influences from the media, the Taipei Society, a respected group composed of liberal academics and professors, called on 13 politicians who are involved with the media to recuse themselves from their duties.

In response, Wang Jin-pyng, who is currently a board committee member at the Great Entertainment Daily (大成報), yesterday announced his resignation while he was visiting the US.

Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山) announced the decision for Wang yesterday. He said that Wang didn't mean to be the daily's committee member and was never involved in policy-making.

"He is pleased to have resigned the post," Lin said.

Reacting to Wang's resignation, Chai yesterday told reporters that he would decide whether to quit the post as a member of the party's Central Standing Committee after the DPP discusses the issue in its central committee meeting Tuesday.

Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), secretary-general of the Presidential office, yesterday told reporters that removing DPP politicians from media organizations would be dealt with through the party's mechanism.

"We will communicate effectively with our members. But, once the policy has been established, party members should follow it," Chiou said.

Chai, the chairman of Formosa Television (民視), one of the country's four terrestrial TV stations, warned Friday against any drastic measures to achieve the party's attempts to force party officials to abandon their stakes in media organizations.

He said it is more urgent for political parties to withdraw their capital from TV companies before steps may be taken to regulate individuals.

He also suggested that the government should first relinquish its stakes in two other terrestrial TV stations, Chinese Television System (CTV, 華視) and Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV, 台視).

Formosa TV was founded in 1997. As the television station's chairman, Chai's involvement in the station's news coverage has been controversial, especially after he encouraged the station's reporters to embrace "Taiwan consciousness" when reporting the news.

Another member of the party's Central Standing Committee, Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏), who chairs the board of Global TV, has decided to relinquish his position at the TV station.

The amendment to the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣電法), which aims at removing political and military influence from the media, passed its first reading in the previous legislative session. It proposes barring party officials from owning stakes in TV companies.