The government yesterday refused to bow to demands recently made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus that the budget for the Public Television Service (PTS) be used as a mechanism to screen the public broadcaster’s news coverage and programming.
“Any programs broadcast by PTS will not be censored by the government in advance or afterwards,” said Vanessa Shih (史亞平), minister of the Government Information Office (GIO), the regulatory agency of the PTS Foundation.
PTS published a statement in major Chinese-language newspapers yesterday saying that a draft legislative motion proposed by the KMT caucus would severely infringe upon its operations, which should be independent from political parties, the government and the military.
On Tuesday during a legislative committee meeting, the KMT proposed that PTS would require prior item-by-item approval from the GIO for all budgetary spending.
The KMT’s motion also demanded that the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Council of Hakka Affairs and the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission be responsible for the operations of Taiwan Indigenous Television, Hakka Television Station and Taiwan Macroview TV respectively, in terms of screening and supervising of the production of their programs.
KMT lawmakers wanted to attach the motion to the service’s budget to make it binding.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) accused the KMT caucus of interfering with the media, saying that the country’s democracy would take a big step backward should the motion pass the legislature.
“It’s really pathetic that the KMT would meddle in public broadcasting to prevent dissenting views in order to protect its authoritarian rule,” Chiu said.
KMT legislative caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) rebutted the accusation, saying that the motion was merely intended to urge the government agencies to be responsible for the TV stations they supervise, not to interfere with the media.
The Association of Taiwan Journalists called on the KMT caucus to withdraw the motion, which it said would compromise the independence of the media to the extent of the Martial Law era.
PTS hasn’t been able to use NT$450 million (US$13.5 million), the budget earmarked for the second half year of this year, as it has remained frozen by the KMT-controlled legislature.
Shih said the government would continue to communicate with the KMT caucus to unfreeze the budget and ensure the interests of PTS staffers remained unaffected.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly