Pledging to continue the crackdown on underground radio stations before legalizing them, the Government Information Office (GIO) is expected to unveil a concrete measure next week regarding the legalization of underground radio stations and complete the process by the end of next year.
There are 93 underground radio stations. The GIO is accepting illegal radio stations' applications starting Oct. 1.
"In addition to helping underground radio stations become legal, we won't hesitate to continue the crackdown on illegal radio stations," GIO Director-General Lin Chia-lung (
Likening underground broadcasters to "illegal street vendors," Lin said that the measure is aimed at restructuring the order of the radio industry and creating a win-win situation for both underground radio stations and legal ones.
"Instead of letting street vendors roam the streets and affect the business of regular stores, we thought it would be a better idea to assign a special zone for them, where they can play by the rules and be better regulated," Lin said.
"If successfully implemented, a similar measure will not only safeguard the interest of legal radio stations, but also help the formerly illegal ones upgrade their competitive edge," Lin said.
Under the GIO's plan, two hertzes of the radio frequencies between 88hz to 108hz would be set aside for underground radio stations.
To better manage radio stations, Lin said that the GIO plans to separate radio stations with high, medium and low transmit powers into three different frequency categories.
While the transmission radius of a high transmit power radio station covers the entire nation, that of a medium transmit power station is 20km and low transmit power 10km to 15km.
Currently, radio stations with a high-powered transmitter are state-owned such as Police Radio Station and Voice of Han Broadcasting Network.
Radio stations with medium transmission power are privately owned either for commercial purposes or public service. Those with low transmission power include school experiment radio stations or underground radio stations.
Responding to the criticism that it was inappropriate for GIO to make such a major policy decision before it is dissolved and transfers its responsibilities to the proposed national communication council (NCC), Lin said that the criticism sounded "short-sighted."
"So are they saying that we don't have to do anything before the government restructuring project is complete?" Lin asked. "As civil servants, it'd be dereliction of duty if we didn't do anything and continue to push for reforms."
The Cabinet approved two draft amendments in September last year aimed at abolishing the Government Information Office (GIO) and laying the foundation for its successor, the National Communications Commission (NCC).
If approved by the legislature, the commission would be an independent entity and the sole supervisory body of the telecommunications and media industries.
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"My station was raided for three or four times and equipments confiscated during the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) era," he said. "Speaking from my personal experience, it's definitely the right way to go to liberate more radio frequencies."
KMT Spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元), however, questioned the GIO's move, which he claimed was aimed at cracking down on radio stations with a pro-unification tinge.
"I'm calling on the GIO head to push for the proposed NCC not to become a hitman for the ruling party," he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater