Another battle over media reform was brewing yesterday as the government tried to force through a legislative amendment that would require a TV station formerly owned by the military to move to southern Taiwan.
A draft bill regulating the release of government shareholdings in terrestrial TV stations is expected to clear the legislature tomorrow, with one article left to be voted on.
A round of cross-party negotiations was called yesterday to iron out differences over the draft bill, which has been placed on top of tomorrow's legislative agenda.
Representatives from all parties agreed on the last 16 articles of the bill yesterday, although they failed to reach consensus on a rider attached to Article 13.
The amendment would require Chinese Television System (CTS,
Government Information Office Minister Pasuya Yao (
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) negotiator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), however, described the move as an election gimmick and said that the matter should be decided by the Public Television Foundation.
Lawmakers from across party lines also agreed that another terrestrial station, Taiwan Television Enterprise Ltd (TTV, 台視), must sell all its public holdings and become a private corporation.
The proceeds of the stake sale would go to the Public Television Foundation to help purchase the private holdings of CTS. The shortfall would be covered by the government budget for three years, while CTS would have to donate all its public holdings to the Public Television Foundation and become a public corporation.
To prevent the military-affiliated Liming Foundation (
The Liming Foundation yesterday insisted that it is a private company, but agreed to release 25 percent of its CTS holdings.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislative caucus yesterday requested that the Liming Foundation return all its holdings in CTS to the state.
The party said that Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (
The Northern Taiwan Society backed the TSU's appeal, saying that an investigation conducted by the Control Yuan in 1999 indicated that the foundation is funded by the government rather than by private investors.
The society added that dissolving the foundation would be a more efficient solution than filing a lawsuit against it.
Negotiators also agreed on another controversial clause, which would establish a committee to review the release of government holdings in terrestrial TV stations in proportion to each party's number of seats in the legislature.
The committee, required by law to be established 20 days after the law goes into effect, would be composed of 17 members. While the committee would be headed by the vice premier, five of the remaining 16 members would be chosen from the ranks of government representatives and delegates from the terrestrial TV union. The remaining 11 members would be made up of experts recommended by political parties according to their number of legislative seats.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
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