The China Times Group lashed out at the National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday over the conditions it imposed when approving the group’s management reshuffle at China Television Co and CTi TV last Wednesday.
The group ran front-page advertisements in two Chinese-language newspapers yesterday, the China Times and Apple Daily, asking the commission to apply the same conditions on other TV stations.
“If the NCC has problems meeting this demand, it should withdraw the ruling, which was a clear abuse of its power,” the ads read.
The ads singled out three NCC members — Wen Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Chung Chi-hui (鍾起惠) and National Communications Commission Vice Chairman Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) — and said they would be responsible for any consequences of the ruling because they had asked for a hearing on the case and had swayed the other members.
Photos of the three were made to look like those that accompany the National Police Agency’s most wanted list.
The NCC condemned the ad during a press conference yesterday afternoon.
National Communications Commission Chairwoman Bonnie Peng (彭芸) said the commission had been very cautious when it reviewed the group’s application to overhaul the management of the two stations.
CTV was a terrestrial TV channel, while CTi was a cable TV station, she said.
“This case involves a media conglomerate that owns a newspaper and two television services,” she said.
“Academics have had many discussions on whether media ownership should be regulated and whether it should be done loosely or strictly,” she said.
“We welcome discussion that focuses on government policy,” she said. “Using a tactic [like the ad] that is meant to divide the commissioners is immoral. I’ll just use this word, ‘immoral.’”
Peng said the media was both an industry and a public asset, which was why many countries were cautious when handling media issues.
“When Rupert Murdoch, an Australian, wanted to acquire media outlets in the UK and US, both countries held hearings and heard testimony to ensure that the acquisitions would not jeopardize the diversity of public opinion,” Peng said. “The China Times Group ruling was not targeting Mr Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) [the group’s new owner] or his family.”
Peng also dismissed reports in the China Times that she was in the process of writing a dissent criticizing the case.
Reporters from CTV, CTi TV and the Chinese-language Commercial Daily — another member of the China Times Group’s stable — questioned the legality of the conditions set by the commission.
A Commercial Daily reporter tried to read a statement issued by the group’s new management but was reprimanded by other reporters.
In its statement, the commission said it held the hearing in accordance with the Broadcasting and Television Act (廣播電視法), while the conditions it set followed the rules in the Administrative Procedural Act (行政程序法).
“Should the group refuse to accept the conditions, it could file an administrative lawsuit against the National Communications Commission and seek protection from the judicial system,” the statement said.
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