Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Vanessa Shih (史亞平) yesterday denied a report that state-owned Radio Taiwan International (RTI), which broadcasts in 13 languages around the world, had been told by the government not to denounce China.
A front-page story in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday said some independent directors of RTI were planning to resign en masse to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s intervention in the company’s operations.
“The GIO, as a supervisor of RTI, has urged it to build a good image of the country. It has not asked them not to criticize China,” Shih said.
RTI chairman Cheng Yu (鄭優) said he has told the GIO that he intends to step down and will give his letter of resignation to a provisional meeting of RTI’s board of directors today.
Cheng was assigned by the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to lead the RTI. His term expires next September.
Board member Luo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said that he, several independent directors and RTI director general Shao Li-chung (紹立中) would submit their resignations today to protest the government’s repression of free speech and its pro-China position.
Meanwhile, Cheng refused to respond to comments by some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers that he should have resigned after the KMT administration took office since RTI is a national station.
KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) accused Cheng of using political intervention as an excuse to quit his job.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) criticized the KMT government for reshuffling RTI’s board for political reasons.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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