The Legislative Yuan is reviewing the budgets of Public Television Service (PTS) and English-language news platform TaiwanPlus, with proposed cuts and freezes of more than NT$1 billion (US$30.97 million). Legislators are considering cutting nearly all government funding for TaiwanPlus. Each proposed reduction should be clearly justified with concrete evidence; political dissatisfaction alone is not enough to justify such sweeping changes.
Some proposals cite delays in the appointment of PTS board members and supervisors as grounds for cutting or freezing funding. However, under the Public Television Act (公共電視法) candidates for directors and supervisors other than employee representatives are nominated by the Executive Yuan and appointed after approval by a review committee. The PTS Foundation has neither the authority to nominate candidates nor the power to conduct the reviews. Using a procedure beyond PTS’ mandate as grounds for entirely withholding essential operating funding misattributes responsibility for the holdups.
Cutting funding would not make a list of candidates appear sooner, nor would move any nominations through the approval process. The cuts would impact news reporting, program production, children’s content, drama collaborations and international broadcasting. The political deadlock would remain unresolved, and content available to audiences would take a hit. Once production teams are dismantled, partnerships suspended or overseas distribution channels disrupted, restoring personnel and rebuilding production capacity would require even more time and resources.
The Legislative Yuan has the authority to scrutinize PTS and TaiwanPlus. However, oversight must be based on verifiable spending and measurable outcomes. Where a service fails to meet agreed-upon goals, legislators should identify the budget item and calculations behind their proposed reduction. If the problem is management-related, the conditions for lifting a budget freeze should involve actions PTS is capable of completing and that the legislature can verify.
Budget cuts should demonstrate why the spending is unnecessary, and freezes should specify achievable conditions for release. Delays in appointing board members should not result in the collective punishment of public broadcasting.
Legislators and political parties proposing and negotiating these cuts might hold the power of the purse, but they are also responsible for explaining the rationale behind their decisions.
Personnel disputes should be resolved by those with the authority to nominate and review candidates, rather than having their consequences passed on to production teams, children and other audiences.
Without any failed or wasteful service identified, the lawmakers lack a valid basis to justify the proposed cuts and freezes. Nevertheless, the cost is set to be borne by our public services.
Steve Ho is a retired engineer.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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