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Court rules for ETTV-S in NCC compensation case

The Taipei District Court ruled yesterday that the National Communications Commission (NCC) needs to compensate ETTV-S (東森新聞S台), a local cable TV station, NT$348 million (US$10.5 million) for its losses during the 332-day period when its license was suspended by the Government Information Office (GIO) in July 2005.

The station had its license suspended by the GIO after a review committee ruled that half of its programming was not news-related, which meant the station failed to qualify as a “news station,” in contradiction of the statement of purpose listed on its application.

The station appealed the GIO’s decision to the Cabinet and the appeal was granted, enabling the station to resume operations on July 19, 2006. ETTV-S then filed a request for compensation to the Taipei District Court.

Taipei District Court Spokesman Huang Chun-min (黃俊明) said that GIO’s grounds for suspending ETTV-S’ license were insufficient and the GIO had not given the station a chance to improve, which made the suspension process unfair.

　"The court decided that the station paid for the lack of sufficient regulations and so granted its request for compensation," Huang said.

As responsibility for media regulation was transferred to the NCC upon its establishment in 2006, the NCC is liable to pay the compensation on behalf of the government.

The NCC yesterday confirmed the news, adding that it would consider appealing the case to the high court after it receives the official court verdict from the district court.

　 ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
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