The Cabinet plans to release two draft bills on Wednesday aimed at abolishing the Government Information Office (GIO) and laying the foundation for its successor, the National Communications Commission (NCC).
The long-anticipated NCC would be established under the Executive Yuan to supervise the nation's telecommunications and media industries.
The two drafts are the framework act on communications and distribution (
If approved by the legislature, the commission would be an independent entity and the sole supervisory body of the telecommunications and media industries.
The plan includes renaming the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and handing it the task of regulating the telecommunications and media industries.
The media industry is regulated by the Cabinet's Government Information Office (GIO), while the telecommunications industry falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Ministry of National Defense.
Although the government hopes to see the NCC established by the end of the year, a Cabinet official who asked not to be named said he is not upbeat about the government's plan.
"I'm not optimistic about its passage in this upcoming legislative session because the draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan have been bogged down in the legislature for over a year now," the official said.
Lawmakers will also be preoccupied with the ratification of grand justices and the review of next year's annual budget, he added.
According to the Cabinet's government reconstruction plan, the Executive Yuan would be downsized from the current 35 administrative entities to 23 plus four independent institutions.
The 32-year-old GIO, which has been criticized for acting both as the Cabinet's mouthpiece and the regulatory body for the country's media, would be abolished.
Its four major tasks would be transferred to other government agencies and the new proposed organ of the NCC.
The NCC would supervise the nation's telecommunications and media industry, while the publishing and film industries would be placed under the authority of the Council for Cultural Affairs.
International promotion would go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, and domestic promotion and media liaison duties would be allocated to the Cabinet Spokesperson's Office.
In addition to providing the legal basis for establishing the NCC, the framework act concerning communications and distribution would give the government the power to requisition television and radio channels in a state of emergency to run cut-ins for the sake of the public interest.
The organic law of the National Communications Commission would stipulate that a management fund be set up to pay for the operating expenses of the NCC.
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