Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday proposed two bills to establish an exit mechanism for the state public prosecutor-general and National Communications Commission (NCC) members.
Tsai said his proposed amendment to the Organic Act of Court Organization (法院組織法) would authorize the legislature to approve or reject a “no-confidence vote” proposed by the minister of justice should the minister have difficulty working with the state public prosecutor-general.
Tsai said such an option was necessary because there had been a problem with the ranking of the justice minister and the state public prosecutor-general because of how they were nominated.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The president nominates the state public prosecutor-general and the nomination is approved by the legislature, while the premier nominates the justice minister, whose appointment is approved by the president.
Tsai’s proposal would require either the justice minister to either resign or propose a no-confidence vote to resolve a conflict with the prosecutor-general.
Tsai’s proposed amendment to the Organic Act of the NCC (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) would introduce a similar mechanism for the commission’s chairman, vice chairman or members.
Under this proposal, the chairman, vice chairman or NCC members would have to immediately tender their resignation to the premier after a no-confidence vote proposed by the premier or if one-fourth of the commission members wins the support of more than half of the members.
Tsai said changes were needed to the NCC law because the commission’s handling of the China-based Want Want Group’s takeover of China Television Co (CTV) and CTiTV in the past two weeks was “controversial.”
The commission approved the takeover last Wednesday but set several conditions, including barring the management, directors and supervisors from either TV station concurrently holding a similar position at the other station.
The commission ruled that each network should have at least one independent board director without an affiliation to either the Want Want Group or the China Times Group, the two stations’ parent firm.
The China Times Group was purchased by the Want Want Group last year.
The NCC also stipulated that the two stations’ advertising, sales and programming departments must be separate, and each network must generate its own programming.
In addition, the two networks are not allowed to jointly bid for advertising contracts.
The China Times Group has accused the NCC of abusing its authority.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to