The Executive Yuan yesterday nominated seven members for the National Communications Commission (NCC), a body tasked with regulating the telecom and broadcasting sectors.
The seven candidates, which must be approved by the legislature, were chosen among “a long list” of names, many of whom turned down offers to serve on the commission because of a new “revolving door clause,” Cabinet spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said yesterday.
The clause added to the NCC’s Organic Law (國家通訊傳播組織法) last year bars NCC members from serving as executives of enterprises related to the NCC’s duties within three years of leaving the commission.
In July 2006 the Council of Grand Justices found the law unconstitutional in part because it stipulates that NCC members should be nominated by political parties in proportion to their number of seats in the legislature.
Some of the NCC members stepped down after the ruling, while others stayed on to complete their three-year term, which ended in January.
At that point the Democratic Progressive Party government decided to postpone the nomination of new members until after the presidential inauguration in May.
Candidate Hsieh Chih-nan (謝進男), formerly a member of the pan-green Taiwan Solidarity Union, was the only incumbent NCC member to be renominated.
Shih declined to comment on why the other four NCC members — chairman Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽), Howard Shyr (石世豪), Liu Tsung-de (劉宗德) and Lee Tsu-yuan (李祖源) — were not renominated.
The other nominees were Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), an associate professor of law at the Institute of Law for Science and Technology at National Tsing Hua University; Liu Chorng-jian (劉崇堅), a professor of economics at National Taipei University; Chen Cheng-tsang (陳正倉), a professor of economics at National Taiwan University; Lee Ta-sung (李大嵩), a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Chiao Tung University; Chang Pao-chi (張寶基), a supervisor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Central University; and Chung Chi-hui (鍾起惠), director of the Department of Journalism at Shih Hsin University.
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
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
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
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,