The Government Information Office (GIO) yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Taiwan Public Television Service (PTS) Foundation demanding the dismissal of acting chairman Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚) in the wrangling over the leadership of the state broadcaster.
In a statement, the office said that it had no choice but to take legal action against Cheng as it had given him 10 days to resume the operation of the board of directors on Jan. 14.
Cheng has yet to do so, it said.
Cheng, who said that his statutory term would not end until the end of this year, on Jan. 9 filed an injunction to halt eight board member appointments made by the GIO.
Cheng’s move put off a board meeting scheduled for the following day that would have installed the new members.
It also delayed an election to replace Cheng with the GIO’s preferred candidate, Chen Shih-min (陳世敏).
The GIO subsequently said that Chen had illegally used NT$2 million (US$63,000) without the consent of the board of directors.
Taking the case to court could restore normal operations of the board of directors and ensure continuity at PTS, the office said.
PTS spokesman Chung Yu-yuan (鍾裕淵) said that the lawsuit against PTS was inappropriate and violated the spirit under which the station was established.
That spirit, he said, was that the station would remain independent and autonomous.
“That the GIO is suing PTS is unprecedented and will not help end the controversy,” Chung said.
Chung said the office should instead address the flaws that were highlighted by the Control Yuan in the appointment process of the eight members of the board of directors at the state broadcaster.
The Control Yuan last month censured the GIO for its handling of the appointments, but the latter ignored the motion and insisted that its appointments were legitimate.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching