Despite the government's claims that it is not wasting taxpayers' money on promoting President Chen Shui-bian (
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) complained about the matter at the party's Central Standing Committee meeting. He said that the Government Information Office's (GIO) new practice of retaining all promotional budgets for the purpose of engaging in annual collective purchases of all media promotional air-time and space amounted to manipulation of the media and promoting Chen in advance of a presidential election.
Lien further said that "The GIO's practice could violate the regulations and should be impeached by the Control Yuan."
Instead of entitling all of the government departments to purchase the air time and advertising space in the media to promote their own individual policies and achievements, the GIO has modified traditional practice by combining all departmental promotional budgets to undertake a single annual bulk purchase of media spots.
The total budget is NT$1.1 billion, which the GIO said would entitle the government to effectively bargain with media organizations for optimal air time and advertising space.
The fund covers a NT$200-million promotion, which is scheduled to run between April 1 and June 30, and NT$900 million more for promotions running from July till next March.
Lien, however undermined his case with a glaring factual error. He accusing the government of using powers contained in the Government Procurement Act (
"The KMT is wrong about the law. [The act] was passed last February," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
Kuo Yao-chi (
"Because the old practice was ineffective, we decided to practice bulk purchasing for greater efficiency," said Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
The Legislative Yuan's Education and Culture Committee (
In response, GIO Director-General Arthur Iap (
In its meeting yesterday, the KMT again criticized the president's weekly television show, A-bian Portrait, saying that the show "rapes" the media for four minutes every week.
Presidential Office Spokesman James Huang (
"All news organizations are at liberty to decide whether to broadcast the show or not. We would hope that the opposition parties would stop looking at the Presidential Office's news dealings with their out-of-date thinking," Huang said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it