National Chengchi University’s director of the Department of Journalism Su Herng (蘇蘅) was elected yesterday as the new chairperson of the National Communications Commission (NCC) to complete the remainder of the term left by predecessor Bonnie Peng (彭芸).
The result came as no surprise to some people as Su was said to be the potential successor of Peng.
A source within the commission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, indicated that Su and another commissioner ran for the chairmanship. Su beat the other commissioner by garnering four of the total seven votes, the sources said.
PHOTO: CNA
“Some commissioners felt that the NCC is an independent establishment within the central government and that the commissioners should safeguard the power to make decisions independently bestowed to them by the Constitution,” the source said. “They decided to recommend another commissioner and placed that person on the ballot.”
When asked how she planned to handle the Next TV case, Su said she would need some time to look into the case to form her opinion.
Last week, the commission approved the establishment of Next TV’s sports channel, but decided to continue the review on the network’s applications for news, information and entertainment channels.
Peng tendered her resignation in May as the Department of Journalism at National Chengchi University had only allowed her to be on leave for two years.
In her farewell speech, Peng defended against criticism leveled against the commission.
“I absolutely do not agree whenever someone says that NCC stands for ‘No Communications Commission,’” Peng said, citing examples that civic interest groups were allowed to participate in any of the discussions on policies and that the commission communicated with media experts and industry representatives nationwide when amending three major broadcasting laws.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift