The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday rejected the Chinese Television System’s (CTS) application for a change of board members and overseers because its major shareholder, Public Television Service (PTS), failed to comply with regulations, the NCC said.
NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said that PTS’ regulations state that any resolution made by the PTS board could only take effect if at least two-thirds of the board members attended the meeting.
PTS — which owns 83 percent of CTS shares — held a board meeting in May to select its representatives to the CTS board. CTS held a shareholders’ meeting in June to select 21 new board members and two overseers, who then chose PTS chairman Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚) to serve as the new CTS chairman.
“PTS has 12 board members able to participate in the board meeting, so at least eight board members had to be present,” Chen said. “We found, however, that only seven board members actually attended the board meeting in May. And since the board meeting didn’t meet the requirement, the resolution it made was not valid so the NCC turned down the CTS application for a change of board members and overseers.”
The NCC’s decision to reject the changes came after the PTS board decided on Saturday to terminate its relations with the 21 board members and remove Cheng as CTS chairman.
Because of the case, the Government Information Office (GIO) has sent official letters to the NCC four times, asking it to “handle the case cautiously,” Chen said.
The NCC ruling leaves the CTS without a governing board and a chairman. When asked to comment, Chen said PTS is under the administrative authority of the GIO so the NCC cannot comment on PTS management issues.
The ruling also intensifies an apparent struggle between Cheng and the GIO. Cheng earlier last month filed an appeal with the Control Yuan, asking it to investigate the GIO for taking action against seven members of the PTS board in a bid to paralyze the television service.
The GIO last night said it respects the NCC’s ruling and it would ask PTS to select new representatives to the CTS board.
In other news, the NCC fined PTS NT$150,000 (US$4,688) for airing an award-winning Taiwanese movie Here Comes the Black Dog (黑狗來了) during general rating hours, even though it was parental guidance (PG)-rated.
“Though the sexual scenes are part of the movie’s creativity, most panel members determined that it should not be aired during general rating hours,” said Chien Hsu-cheng (簡旭徵), deputy director of the NCC’s Communication Content Department.
The PTS said it would appeal the case to the Executive Yuan.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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