Scores of pirate radio station operators protested vociferously against the National Communica-tions Commission (NCC) yesterday in a continuation of clashes that have simmered since June.
Held back by rows of police in riot gear, angry protesters spat at pictures of commission members and burnt copies of the Constitution over what they said was the NCC's lack of legitimacy.
"The threshold that the NCC has set for licensed stations is NT$50 million [US$1.5 million] in assets and capital, which puts licensing totally out of reach of independent operators," said Tsai Chi-feng (蔡吉豐), a pirate radio station owner.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
"Local and non-mainstream Taiwanese voices are being silenced," Tsai said, adding that the crackdown was part of the NCC's "secret scheme to let the pro-China media monopolize the media market" in the country.
The commission has been cracking down hard on pirate stations, which are generally considered more sympathetic toward Taiwan independence.
So far this year, the commission has shut down more than 500 such outfits, according to Hsu Ming-tse (
The commission itself was declared unconstitutional by the Council of Grand Justices in July because of the party-based nomination method for its members.
However, the current members will serve until the end of their term in January 2008.
"They have no authority to shut us down when they have constitutional problems themselves," Hsu said.
"We will be willing to work with the next group of commissioners, elected constitutionally, but not the current NCC," Hsu said.
The commission did not respond to the protest.
An administrator who declined to be named told the Taipei Times that the commission did not meet with the protesters because the protesters did not submit their complaints in the proper manner.
Despite the fact that stations are continually being shut down and their equipment confiscated, Tsai said station owners continue to play cat and mouse with the commission.
"We will keep fighting ... we are regrouping and rebroadcasting as soon as soon as they shut us down," Tsai said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS