The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday that the Want Want China Times Group has yet to fulfill the conditions set by the commission when the group intended to purchase cable television systems owned by the China Network Systems (CNS) in 2012, adding that Want Want China Times still owns CtiTV
The three conditions include that Want Want China Times Group Chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) and his associates must completely dissociate themselves from the management of the CtiTV news channel.
Meanwhile, China Television’s (CTV) digital news channel, which also belongs to the group, has to be changed into a non-news channel and CTV must have an independent content review board.
Each condition must be met before the acquisition is allowed to take effect, the commission said.
According to the commission, the three conditions were set because the deal would enable the group to decide the types of channels that should be included in the cable television services, which in turn affects the types of information received by the consumers.
To preserve the diversity of public opinion, the commission ruled that the group should not own or control TV new channels.
To fulfill the conditions, the group first tried last year to place 75 percent of the shares in CtiTV owned by the Tsai family in the trust of the Industrial Bank of Taiwan.
The commission then consulted with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA, the agency responsible for enforcing the Trust Act, 信託法), which said that placing the property in a third-party trust did not change the controlling relations between the property and the property owner.
Based on the interpretation from the ministry, the commission then determined that the group did not fulfill the condition, as Tsai and his associates were specifically told that they must not directly or indirectly control or hold shares of CtiTV.
Andy Hsieh (謝煥乾), director of the commission’s communication management department, said that the group had again inquired in December last year if it had fulfilled the condition after placing the shares under the trust of five individuals.
The commission ruled yesterday that the condition remains unfulfilled, he said.
“Even through he had placed the property under the trust of five individuals rather than a financial institution, it does not change the fact that Tsai and his associates still own CtiTV,” Hsieh said, adding that the group’s application also stated that the group reserves the right to handle the property.
Many questioned why the group has been insisting on meeting the commission’s requirement by placing the property under a third-party trust following its first failed attempt two years ago.
Some also found the second attempt questionable since MBK Partners, the major shareholder in CNS, had filed for withdrawal of its applications to transfer the company’s shares to the Want Want Group.
Chao Yu-pei (趙育培), special assistant to the Want Want China Times Group chairman, said that the group would do everything it can to fulfill the requirements set by the commission.
He said that ministry had told the commission that it should rule on the deal on a case-by-case basis, adding that it was unfair that the commission kept using an interpretation of the Trust Act to reject the group’s request.
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,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods