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.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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