National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairwoman Nicole Chan (詹婷怡) yesterday said that the commission would continue communicating with lawmakers about the possibility of amending regulations governing investment in media outlets by the government, political parties and the military, adding that it would secure approval from lawmakers if they present complementary measures.
Chan, accompanied by five commissioners, made the comments at their first media briefing after taking office on Monday.
She was asked if the government would loosen regulations and allow the government, political parties and the military to invest in the media outlets.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The Executive Yuan had initially proposed capping indirect investment by the government, political parties and the military at 10 percent and ban all direct investment.
The cap was reduced to 5 percent when lawmakers reviewed amendments to the three broadcasting acts: the Radio and Television Act (廣播電視法), the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) and the Cable Television Act (有線電視法).
However, both the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) decided to leave the regulations unchanged and passed other, less controversial legislation instead.
Many pundits have said that the regulations banning investment in media outlets by the government, political parties and the military have failed to serve their original purpose, as a few telecoms with funding from government investment funds have figured out ways to acquire cable TV assets without violating the regulations, as evidenced by Far Eastone Telecommunication’s acquisition of China Network Systems and Asia-Pacific Telecom’s (APT) acquisition of Taiwan Broadband Communications (TBC).
The APT-TBC deal will be one of three major cases to be reviewed by the commission in the next few months.
Asked to comment on the deal, Chan was reluctant, saying that she has yet to fully review the details of the case.
However, she said the regulations banning government investment in media outlets were created to counter the problems at a specific point in time, but failure to re-examine if these regulations remain enforceable has led the the current impasse and generated unforeseeable consequences.
“Draft amendments to the regulations would have to reflect some practical values and must be feasible,” Chan said.
“It’s not going to be easy to change the ‘status quo,’ and we will just have to improve our communication with lawmakers, as well as other parties,” she said.
“Communication would be more productive if we could also present some complementary measures,” she added.
Chan also said that the commission would make drafting new acts dealing with issues related to media convergence a top priority.
However, instead of fully accepting five acts on media convergence that the commission had proposed earlier, Chan said that the commission would work on developing subsidiary laws of three broadcasting acts.
The commission plans to merge two of the five proposed acts — one pertaining to telecom businesses and the other to telecom infrastructure — and review the Telecommunications Act (電信法), which it would then combine into one new act to regulate telecommunication businesses, Chan said.
The commission would also draft a digital communication act to regulate communication over the Internet, Chan said.
“We find that creating laws this way is relatively practical and stable,” she said.
“Through these draft acts, we also hope to incorporate some principles that would encourage innovation, including identical regulations for identical services,” she added.
Drafts of these regulations would be presented to the public by the end of this year, she said.
Chan also commented on the dispute over new labor regulations, which require all workers to take one day off after working six consecutive days.
“While the NCC is not an agency that regulates labor affairs, experiences dictates that we would ask if workers in broadcast media have their rights protected when we review license renewal applications or examine performance in biennial reviews,” she said.
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