The deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan yesterday promised to introduce a legal amendment that would strengthen restrictions against the broadcasting of imported TV programs and bring cable TV stations within its scope.
Deputy Secretary-General Liu Yu-shan (劉玉山) said that the government would introduce an amendment to the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣播電視法) to comply with a demand for a general strengthening of such restrictions made by TV actors in a petition delivered to him following a demonstration yesterday.
He said the amendment would ban terrestrial TV stations from broadcasting imported programs during prime time and bring cable TV within the scope of regulations limiting imported programs to no more than 30 percent of a channel's output.
He said the Cabinet would evaluate whether the 30 percent limit needed to be changed.
Liu was speaking after receiving a petition from some 300 TV actors and actresses who had marched from the Ministry of Education to the Executive Yuan in a protest against imported Japanese, Korean and Chinese films and soap operas on Taiwanese television.
Liu said, however, that the government would merely discuss whether the workers' two other key demands -- that they be made eligible for unemployment benefits and that the government provide professional training -- could be met.
Yesterday's demonstration was organized by the Taipei Movie, Television and Performance Arts Association.
Reacting to the request for unemployment compensation, Lay Jin-feng (賴錦豐), director of the Council of Labor Affairs' (CLA) Department of Labor Insurance, said, "Workers who are laid off by employers and have paid labor insurance for more than one year are qualified for unemployment benefits. I don't think most of these actors qualify."
Most actors and actresses operate on a freelance basis.
An official from the CLA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration, who only gave his surname, Kuei, said that the CLA's approximately 40 branches around the country are "willing to assist all kinds of workers, including those from show business, to take any professional training that would fit their potential."
All unemployed people are eligible for professional training provided by the CLA.
According to the Government Information Office, which is in charge of managing the media in Taiwan, between 15 and 20 percent of the output of Taiwan's four terrestrial TV stations is imported.
Current regulations state that imported TV programs may not exceed 30 percent of terrestrial TV stations' output.
The restrictions, however, do not apply to cable TV channels. The GIO has no figures on the percentage of imported programs broadcast on cable TV.
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