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.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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