The Government Information Office (GIO) yesterday renewed the operating licenses of three terrestrial TV stations but threatened to revoke them should their shares be sold to foreign or Chinese investors.
The GIO conducted the third round of a review of the two-year licenses of Chinese Television System (CTS), Taiwan Television (TTV) and China Television (CTV) yesterday morning.
While all committee members agreed unanimously to renew the licenses, they resolved that the GIO should offer administrative guidance to the three stations in terms of the stations' digitization, program production, business operation and sales of shares held by political parties and the government.
Committee members also added a resolution that the GIO can rescind the licenses of TTV and CTV should the state or party shareowners sell their stakes in the companies to foreign or Chinese investors.
The Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT), through the party-run Hua-Hsia Investment Holding Co, owns a 65 percent stake in CTV and a 10 percent stake in TTV. The government owns 47.39 percent of TTV and 75.04 percent of CTS. The public's stake in the two companies long predates the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
The KMT is required by the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣電法) to dispose of its stakes in CTV and TTV, as well as the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC), the Central Motion Picture Corp, the Central Daily News and China Daily News by Dec. 26 next year.
The GIO plans to sell its stake in TTV, while CTS will be merged with four other publicly owned stations to create a single public television group by the deadline.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
RSS