At a provisional board meeting of the Central Broadcasting System (CBS) in Taipei yesterday, the board of directors approved the resignations of chairman Cheng Yu (鄭優), Radio Taiwan International (RTI) director-general Shao Li-chung (紹立中) and deputy station chief Chang Cheng-lin (張正霖).
Board members Luo Chih-cheng (羅致政) and Tung Li-wen (董立文) also announced their resignations at the meeting. Luo also offered the resignations of two other directors — Liao Chin-kui (廖錦桂) and Chu Tai-hsiang (朱台翔) — who were not in attendance, on their behalf.
Speaking at the meeting, one of the directors got agitated, claiming that “the government has mobilized the media to force a mass resignation.”
Ho Nai-chi (何乃麒), head of the Government Information Office (GIO) Department of Broadcasting Affairs, who was put forward in the meeting to serve as provisional chairman, rebutted the remarks. He said the government had never pressured any director to resign.
Ho said that after the meeting yesterday, the GIO would appoint new directors to fill the vacancies as soon as possible, and a new chairperson would be elected in due course, so that the CBS and RTI can continue their operations with minimum disruption.
A front-page story in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Tuesday reported that the RTI,which broadcasts in 13 languages around the world, had been told by the government not to denounce China. It also reported that 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 and to protest the government’s repression of free speech. GIO Minister Vanessa Shih (史亞平) on Tuesday denied the report.
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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