The National Communications Commission (NCC) must look into a series of blackouts experienced by New Tang Dynasty Asia Pacific Television (NTDTV) to make sure they were not an attempt by Beijing to restrict media freedom in Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
The Falun Gong-affiliated station, which is known for speaking out against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said its Taipei-based station began experiencing intermittent interruptions on Sept. 17, two weeks before China's National Day last Thursday.
The station reported a total blackout on Thursday, when the Chinese government put on an elaborate military parade in Beijing to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Chunghwa Telecom was immediately notified of the problem but has been unable to determine the cause of the interruption, except to say that all equipment appeared to be functioning normally, said Chang Ching-chung (張欽宗), a section head at Chunghwa Telecom, who said it would be difficult to determine whether China was behind the blackouts.
In a statement, NTDTV said: “This apparent jamming is an unprecedented encroachment of commercial broadcast in Taiwan. During this period ... NTD calls on the international community to take heed of this development. If it proves to be true [that China caused the blackouts], China's communist regime would have violated media freedom in a territory beyond its borders. This would be an affront not only to the democratic society of Taiwan, but to democracies everywhere.”
Lai told a press conference yesterday that if NTDTV went off air because of sabotage, it would be no small matter and would constitute attempts by Beijing to restrict media freedom in Taiwan. The government must determine what happened to ensure that media freedom is protected, he said.
Lin Ching-chih (林清池), head of the NCC's information management division, said the NCC had launched a probe into the incident and asked Chunghwa Telecom to locate the cause of the blackouts as soon as possible.
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