Pledging to continue the crackdown on underground radio stations before legalizing them, the Government Information Office (GIO) is expected to unveil a concrete measure next week regarding the legalization of underground radio stations and complete the process by the end of next year.
There are 93 underground radio stations. The GIO is accepting illegal radio stations' applications starting Oct. 1.
"In addition to helping underground radio stations become legal, we won't hesitate to continue the crackdown on illegal radio stations," GIO Director-General Lin Chia-lung (
Likening underground broadcasters to "illegal street vendors," Lin said that the measure is aimed at restructuring the order of the radio industry and creating a win-win situation for both underground radio stations and legal ones.
"Instead of letting street vendors roam the streets and affect the business of regular stores, we thought it would be a better idea to assign a special zone for them, where they can play by the rules and be better regulated," Lin said.
"If successfully implemented, a similar measure will not only safeguard the interest of legal radio stations, but also help the formerly illegal ones upgrade their competitive edge," Lin said.
Under the GIO's plan, two hertzes of the radio frequencies between 88hz to 108hz would be set aside for underground radio stations.
To better manage radio stations, Lin said that the GIO plans to separate radio stations with high, medium and low transmit powers into three different frequency categories.
While the transmission radius of a high transmit power radio station covers the entire nation, that of a medium transmit power station is 20km and low transmit power 10km to 15km.
Currently, radio stations with a high-powered transmitter are state-owned such as Police Radio Station and Voice of Han Broadcasting Network.
Radio stations with medium transmission power are privately owned either for commercial purposes or public service. Those with low transmission power include school experiment radio stations or underground radio stations.
Responding to the criticism that it was inappropriate for GIO to make such a major policy decision before it is dissolved and transfers its responsibilities to the proposed national communication council (NCC), Lin said that the criticism sounded "short-sighted."
"So are they saying that we don't have to do anything before the government restructuring project is complete?" Lin asked. "As civil servants, it'd be dereliction of duty if we didn't do anything and continue to push for reforms."
The Cabinet approved two draft amendments in September last year aimed at abolishing the Government Information Office (GIO) and laying the foundation for its successor, the National Communications Commission (NCC).
If approved by the legislature, the commission would be an independent entity and the sole supervisory body of the telecommunications and media industries.
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"My station was raided for three or four times and equipments confiscated during the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) era," he said. "Speaking from my personal experience, it's definitely the right way to go to liberate more radio frequencies."
KMT Spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元), however, questioned the GIO's move, which he claimed was aimed at cracking down on radio stations with a pro-unification tinge.
"I'm calling on the GIO head to push for the proposed NCC not to become a hitman for the ruling party," he said.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS