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.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS