The Council of Agriculture (COA) has come under fire over its recent policy of asking its civil servants to keep tabs on media commentaries about its policies.
According to staff at the council’s Agriculture and Food Agency, the agency recently passed a notice to division chiefs in the production, storage and transport units as well as to agency branches across the nation to take turns monitoring political commentary shows starting this month and running to December.
The agency has asked staff to watch the news channels for two hours on weekday work shifts from 6pm to 12am and for three hours on vacation days from 11am to midnight, the staff said.
New regulations stipulate that agency staff who watch the channels may receive a bonus or additional vacation days, with funds paid out of the agricultural development fund or other administrative expenses, they said.
However, bonuses are not given to those who come across negative or important information, but fail to report it to the council’s Public Relations Division, they added.
Staff said people who last month had to monitor TVBS’ business channel — which usually runs until 11pm — are slated to be rotated this month to watching politically relevant programs on the ERA-News channel, which runs later into the night.
“The latest we had to stay up in June was 11pm, but in July we have to stay up until midnight,” said a staff member who wished to remain anonymous, adding that some officials within the agency who did not have to keep tabs on the media were now compelled to watch as well.
“People who don’t have cable TV at home, but are scheduled to keep tabs on TV programs have to go to relatives’ or friends’ houses or stay in the office just to watch the shows — it is unreasonable,” some staffers said, adding that their relatives should not be bothered by office policies.
Taiwan Rural Front spokesperson Tsai Hui-pei (蔡培慧) said the policy was “ridiculous.”
“Does the government have no confidence in its own policies? Why is it that civil servants have to shoulder the incompetence of their administrative officials?” Tsai said.
“If the government wanted to stop all the criticism, it should look at itself and do what it is supposed to instead of trying to control the damage,” she added.
It is one thing if the council and agency were simply trying to see what the media said about their policies and see where they went wrong, but interrupting civil servants’ normal working hours just to keep tabs on who is criticizing them is simply getting their priorities wrong, Tsai added.
However, agency director Li Tsang-lang (李蒼郎) said that as an organization of policy execution, it was the council’s and its agency’s job to take note of comments from all sources and see if there is anything that can be improved.
“If everyone had to take note of media commentaries by themselves it would be too heavy a burden, that’s why we’re working together to try to ease the pressure,” Li said, adding that the council and agency respect the media’s comments and would follow up on good suggestions.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS