The Legislative Yuan's Education and Culture Committee yesterday won a promise from the head of the Government Information Office (GIO) that the agency would submit to the legislature within a month a proposal to reform the two government-owned terrestrial television stations.
This proposal will include making one state-run TV station a public service station and completely privatizing the other, in accordance with a resolution adopted unanimously by the committee.
Reacting to the proposal, the GIO's director-general, Arthur Iap (
Cabinet ministers are not obliged to act on resolutions passed by legislative committees but failure to do so carries the risk of retaliation by the committee in ques-tion, including the possibility of budget rejections or cuts.
The government holds a 74.95 percent stake in the Chinese Television System (CTS) and a 47.39 percent stake in Taiwan Television (TTV).
Academics, non-governmental organizations and lawmakers are calling on all political parties and politicians to divest themselves of their interests in media organizations. How this should be done has proven particularly controversial.
Opposition legislators have urged the government to relinquish all stakes in media organizations, while some communication scholars worry that if the two television stations are privatized at the same time, program quality will suffer.
The GIO, which is in charge of conducting the reform, has remained vague over its plans since Iap took over in February, even though reform of the two stations was a campaign pledge of President Chen Shui-bian's (
According to GIO estimates, the government would have to pay NT$1.9 billion to buy the remaining 52.61 percent stake in TTV to make it a public service station, while it would earn NT$3.9 billion by selling its 74.95 percent stake in CTS.
Alternatively, it could earn NT$1.5 billion from selling its 47.39 stake in TTV, but have to pay NT$ 1.6 billion to buy the remaining 25.05 percent of CTS it doesn't already own.
The GIO's delay in submitting reform proposals has also upset the Campaign for TV Democracy(無線電視民主化聯盟), which drafted Chen's 2000 Mass Media White Paper during his presidential campaign.
The Campaign has urged the government to take full control of both stations and allow them to operate as advertiser-supported channels without government editorial interference.
The group maintains the move would allow the two stations to thrive while providing quality public service broadcasting without having to be preoccupied by market forces and free competition.
Reacting to the GIO's pledge to the legislature yesterday, members of the Campaign said that they would not comment until the GIO releases its proposal.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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