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 magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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