In a bid to realize President Chen Shui-bian's (
The DPP legislative caucus proposed similar legislation last year that passed the first reading in December but failed to win the support of the KMT and TSU during subsequent cross-party negotiations.
There are other versions of the legislation, and the legislative caucuses have agreed to put all of them to a vote at a plenary session if cross-party negotiations fail to reach a consensus.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that the legislation, if approved by the legislature, would mark a milestone in the development of the nation's telecommunications and mass communication industries.
"The amendments were made in accordance with the trends of information technology platforms: convergence, globalization and deregulation," Lin said.
The draft would integrate three existing laws, the Terrestrial Radio and Television Law of 1976, the Cable Radio and Television Law of 1993 and the Satellite Radio and Television Law of 1999.
According to Hung Chiang-chuan (
The positions are founder, member of the board of directors, supervisor or manager.
Elected civil servants and political party members owning media outlets would have to forsake their stakes six months after the law takes effect.
Family members of party members or elected civil servants would be banned from owning more than a 10 percent stake in a media outlet.
Foreigners, including Chinese nationals, would be prohibited from investing and assuming such positions as founder, shareholder, fund donator, member of the board of directors or supervisor in terrestrial television stations.
Foreign investment in the cable television station market would be limited to a 50 percent stake, the same as for ownership of satellite television stations.
To ensure Hakka and Aboriginal languages and cultures, authorities would be allowed to designate certain cable media service providers to broadcast Hakka- and Aboriginal-language programs free of charge.
Cable-service providers should propose their monthly service fee for the year on Aug. 1 for ratification by the authorities.
Authorities should review the performance of service providers once every three years, while the operation license is renewed every six to nine years, according to the proposed legislation.
The draft will proceed to the legislature for further review and final approval.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods