Standing firm on the government's decision to shut down seven TV channels -- starting at midnight last night -- Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that the government should not and will not interfere in media management and policy if the media does not violate any law.
"Before the proposed national communications commission is established, the Government Information Office [GIO] is the supervisory body for the media and its legal duty is to review the operating licenses of media outlets," Hsieh said. "The government would have committed malfeasance if it failed to do so."
As the government is duty bound to protect law-abiding citizens, Hsieh said, civil servants must insist on doing the right thing.
"More TV channels would have had their licenses revoked if we had taken into account the public's criticism of the quality of TV programs," he said.
Responding to criticism of the GIO's decision, Hsieh said everyone knew that a decision would be made yesterday because that's when the operating licenses of 83 TV channels were due to expire.
Late Sunday night the GIO's review committee said seven channels failed their evaluations and should be barred from broadcasting when their licenses expired.
Others channels that passed their review could lose their licenses in three months if they fail to carry out a self-discipline agreement that the TV stations themselves had devised.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip William Lai (
Lai rejected the opposition's claims that the government was acting "despotically."
"They have no idea what they are talking about," Lai said. "We hope the opposition parties stand together with the people. Only those with an authoritarian mindset could come up with such a remark."
Calling the government a "dictatorship" and "communist," KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (
Lai said the accusation by opposition caucuses that the DPP caucus has blocked the establishment of a national communications commission "contradicted the truth."
He said that his caucus has been pushing hard for the commission but opposes the opposition's idea that commission membership be decided according to the number of legislative seats each party has.
KMT Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (
Hung released the names of the 12 members of the GIO's review committee.
Meanwhile, ETTV-S filed an appeal yesterday with the Taipei High Administrative Court, asking for a three-month grace period so it would have time to take care of its 300 employees.
ETTV-S also said it would file an injunction against the GIO decision but would plan to move its programs to another channel owned by the same group.
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