The People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday threatened to freeze the annual budget of the Government Information Office (GIO) during the upcoming legislative session if the ruling party continues to boycott the establishment of a national communications commission (NCC).
"The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] administration must bear all the political responsibility if the NCC cannot get off the ground during the upcoming legislative session," said PFP caucus whip Sun Ta-chien (
As the matter tops his caucus' agenda for the approaching session, Sun said that his caucus will ask Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
If all fails, Sun said that his caucus will join forces with its political ally, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to freeze items in the GIO's budget that overlap those of the proposed NCC.
Sun also asked the GIO to make public background information on the 12 members of its review committee, which denied the license renewal applications of seven TV channels.
They should also explain why the committee members were chosen and the reasons behind the denial of the TV channels' applications.
"If the review process is as fair as they claim, they shouldn't be afraid of releasing that information," Sun said.
Late Sunday night the GIO's review committee said seven channels had failed their evaluations and would be barred from broadcasting when their licenses expired at midnight on Tuesday.
Others channels that passed their reviews could also lose their licenses in three months if they fail to carry out a self-discipline agreement that the TV stations themselves had devised.
In response to the PFP's threat, DPP caucus whip Chen Chin-jun (
Chen also criticized opposition parties' proposal that the NCC's members be decided according to the number of legislative seats each party has.
Chen said that this would not help solve current problems and that the committee would end up being a battlefield for political power struggles.
Echoing Chen's opinion, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Mark Ho (
"It is political feuding if opposition parties use the GIO's annual budget to counter its denial of several TV channel's license renewal applications," he said. "We support the establishment of the NCC, but its members must be independent media experts and academics."
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