The legislature yesterday unfroze funds for the Public Television Systems (PTS) after stalling the last fiscal year’s budget request of NT$450 million (US$13.2 million) for more than a year.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Non-Partisan Solidarity Union caucuses reached the agreement to grant the Government Information Office’s (GIO) budget request for PTS after negotiations on April 14.
The legislature first blocked a budget request of NT$900 million for PTS in 2007 but last year unfroze half of the funds.
A debate later flared up concerning the blocked funding when the legislature passed a resolution proposed by the KMT caucus in early December that stipulated that money for PTS programs be contingent on case-by-case reviews of the projects.
The move sparked protests and concerns that legislators sought to censor public programming.
PTS also issued a press release saying that lack of funds was limiting its operations.
The government and the KMT caucus said the funds were blocked because PTS’ impartiality was questionable.
Lawmakers negotiated the frozen budget in the last legislative session, but a proposal to unfreeze the funds failed to be included on the agenda for the last day of the session because of a disagreement between the KMT and the DPP.
Also yesterday, the legislature passed an amendment to the Copyright Act (著作權法) authorizing Internet service providers (ISP) to suspend services to customers who illegally download copyrighted files on at least three occasions.
The amendment stipulates that ISPs should inform a customer via e-mail upon finding that he or she has infringed copyright laws.
Under the amendment, ISPs are immune from penalties incurred by their customers for infringing on copyrights as long as the ISP did not initiate the file transfer and was not aware of the customers’ illegal activities.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), one of the lawmakers who proposed the amendment, said it would promote development of the Internet while reinforcing copyright protections.
Meanwhile, legislators also approved an amendment to the Consumer Debt Clearance Act (消費者債務清理條例) allowing debtors to seek assistance from local governments in negotiating in court on repaying their debts.
The legislature also passed an amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) entitling single fathers and those who have been unemployed for a long period of time to government stipends.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS