Media reform advocates yesterday asked the Executive Yuan to apologize over the conundrum facing the board of directors at the Public Television Service (PTS, 公視) and amend the Public Television Service Act (公視法) to reduce the number of the directors needed to convene.
The act stipulates that the board can only function where there are at least 17 directors.
However, the committee reviewing the nominations for the PTS’s board passed only five of 13 nominees on Friday, which failed again to meet the minimum requirement stated in the act.
Photo: Sean Chao, Taipei Times
The prospect of a continuously inactive PTS board enraged media reform groups, who organized a protest in front of the PTS station yesterday morning. They asked the Executive Yuan to apologize to the public because the review committee members recommended by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) did not support those nominees who represent underprivileged groups or are from academic backgrounds.
They also asked board directors whose terms have been extended to serve in the interim to resign immediately.
The groups further opposed Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai’s (龍應台) proposal to amend the Public Television Service Act regarding the minimum votes needed from the review committee for the nominations to pass.
They said that the proposed amendment would only enable any ruling party to put the nominees it prefers on the board.
They suggested instead that the minimum number of board directors be reduced to between 11 and 15.
National Chung Cheng University associate professor Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝) said that reducing the number of directors needed to convene the board should be very easy to accomplish because it only involves amending one article in the Public Television Service Act.
Wei Ti (魏玓), associate professor of mass communications at National Chiao Tung University, said that KMT should bear the responsibility for the conundrum PTS is experiencing.
“It was the KMT legislators who raised the bar for the PTS board of directors to form and function,” Wei said.
Association of Taiwan Journalists chairwoman Chen Hsiao-yi (陳曉宜) also blamed the KMT for the delay in the operation of the PTS board of directors.
“The people the party [the KMT] nominated did not make it to the shortlist of the Executive Yuan. Because the directors on the board would vote for the chairperson, they [the review members recommended by KMT] deliberately voted against some of the nominees so that the board could not function,” Chen said.
“The fact that the candidates nominated by the ruling party were rejected by review committee members who were also recommended by the ruling party shows that there is something wrong with negotiations between the Executive Yuan and the KMT caucus,” she said.
‘A SERIOUS THREAT’: Japan has expressed grave concern over the Strait’s security over the years, which demonstrated Tokyo’s firm support for peace in the area, an official said China’s military drills around Taiwan are “incompatible” with peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya said during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday. “Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important for the international community, including Japan,” Iwaya told Wang during a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers’ Meetings in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s large-scale military drills around Taiwan are incompatible with this,” a statement released by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday cited Iwaya as saying. The Foreign Ministers’ Meetings are a series of diplomatic
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
DRILLS FOR 10 DAYS: The exercises would continue around the clock under realistic conditions taking into account all possibilities, the defense ministry said Taiwan yesterday launched its largest-ever military drills intended to guard against Chinese threats to invade, including using “gray zone” tactics deployed by China that stop just short of open warfare. This year’s 10-day live-fire Han Kuang exercises are the longest yet and follow the delivery of a range of new weaponry from tanks to uncrewed waterborne drones. The drills began with exercises to counter the actions of China Coast Guard and maritime militia ships that have been harassing Taiwanese vessels around outlying islands close to the Chinese coast, the Ministry of National Defense said. Cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns are seen by Taiwan as