The legislature's Transportation and Education and Culture committees yesterday jointly passed an initial review of four National Communications Commission (NCC) commissioners nominated by the Cabinet.
The four nominess are Su Herng (蘇蘅), Liu Chorng-jian (劉崇堅), Chang Shi-chung (張時中) and Wei Shyue-win (魏學文).
Su is the journalism chair of National Chengchi University. Chang and Wei are electrical engineering professors at National Taiwan University and National Chi Nan University respectively.
Liu, currently a NCC commissioner, was previously the economics chair at National Taipei University. He was renominated by the Cabinet last month as his term expires next month.
Su, Chang and Wei were appointed to replace NCC Chairwoman Bonnie Peng (彭芸), and commissioners Lee Ta-sung (李大嵩) and Hsieh Chin-nan (謝進男), who are scheduled to step down next month.
During the three-hour question-and-answer session, the nominees faced a host of questions ranging from the nation’s ranking in terms of broadband penetration rate among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries to media coverage on former public prosecutor general Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) and the lawsuits filed by Japanese porn film producers against a local telecoms carrier.
A majority of the lawmakers underlined the structural issues facing the commission. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said that while the NCC functions as an independent administrative agency like the Fair Trade Commission and Financial Supervisory Commission, the NCC chairperson is not appointed by the premier, but rather by a vote among the commissioners.
The fact that the NCC rules by consensus also means that its chairperson may have to defend a policy that he or she does not support, they said.
In response, all four nominees said they supported the proposed amendment to the Organic Act of the National Communications Commission (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法), which authorizes the premier to appoint the NCC chairperson.
Nearly all the legislators asked Su, who is widely viewed as Peng's potential successor, to come to the podium and answer questions.
Su said she did not rule out the likelihood of being appointed NCC chair, adding that: “I have considered every possible scenario when I accepted the nomination ... I will do my best to keep a harmonious relation with other commissioners and pursue administrative efficiency.”
The four nominees still have to face a final review and confirmation by the full legislature.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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