Media experts yesterday urged the National Communications Commission (NCC) to hold administrative hearings before it starts reviewing a merger between Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET) and multiple-cable service operator China Network Systems Co (CNS), adding that the case should be used to revisit laws restricting the government’s investment in media.
Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who has announced a legislative bid, said the commission and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should be condemned for failing to pass the draft media monopolization prevention and diversity preservation act in the Legislative Yuan.
The act has regulations that could resolve controversies generated by mergers of media outlets.
Though the law is not yet effective, Huang said one thing that all parties agreed on during deliberation of the bill was that the commission should hold administrative hearings in the event of a major media merger.
Except for confidential business information, Huang said that the companies involved in the FET-CNS transaction are obligated to disclose information on their shareholders at different tiers of the investment structure and post the details online for public review.
“Far EasTone should explain to the public its investment in China and the source of its funding for this acquisition. It should also assure the public that its stakes in China will have no bearing on its management of media outlets in Taiwan,” Huang said.
Huang questioned the appropriateness of Far Eastern Group chairman Douglas Hsu’s (徐旭東) managing media outlets.
Far Eastern Group operates Far EasTone.
Huang said Hsu’s comments about devices needed to access the freeway electronic toll collection system when the nation launched the system in 2006 — Hsu said people could choose not to buy the devices if they think they cost too much — meant the chairman should tell the public if that is what the company plans to do when it operates a cable television service.
Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏) of National Chung Cheng University said said that China Network Systems is owned by a private-equity fund, whose sole purpose in owning the system was to sell it for a profit.
Lo said the deal would make Far EasTone the third corporation in the nation to own businesses in both the telecommunication and broadcasting industries.
However, it would increase concentration of ownership of the nation’s media by a few large corporations, he said.
Lo said that the commission should also consider whether private-equity funds should be banned from investing in Taiwanese media outlets.
He said that regulations governing investment by political parties, the government and the military should be re-evaluated as well, as they have been proven to be ineffective.
“All that these media-merger deals have shown is that people can always find ways to circumvent the rules,” Lo said.
“If we want to prevent the media market from being monopolized by a few large corporations, the state, which represents the people, should be allowed to invest in media outlets,” Lo said, adding that the move must be supervised by the public.
“If we can develop a strong public media, we will not be afraid of having no other option if we are discontent with the services offered by private media operators,” Lo said.
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