A long-running power struggle over the chairmanship of the state-funded Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation (PTS) showed no signs of abating yesterday after six board members said they would counter sue the Government Information Office (GIO).
The six include acting chairman Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚), who has been unable to legally carry out his position since the GIO filed an injunction against him and six other board members accusing them of illegally convening board meetings.
In a statement released by Cheng and signed by the other directors, Cheng called the GIO’s suit “illegal and baseless,” adding that it was a threat to “the independence of PTS’ future operations.”
“Nobody wanted this battle … we don’t want to [countersue], but PTS has to be able to move forward,” Cheng said.
The problems for the publicly funded TV provider began after the GIO announced in July that the agency would be appointing eight additional directors to the PTS board.
The decision was subsequently censured by the Control Yuan, which alleged that there was a major flaw in the procedure used to appoint the new directors.
In January, Cheng obtained a temporary injunction from the Taipei District Court to stop the eight new directors from convening a meeting, a move that was approved by the station’s supervisory board but drew fire from some other members.
The GIO suit against Cheng and the six other directors, in which it accused them of illegally convening meetings without the required two-thirds of directors in attendance, means that only five of the 21-member board of directors are able to carry out their positions.
“There was nothing we could do, five of the directors had vowed to boycott our meetings and yet under the Public Television Service, we were legally mandated to hold the meetings once a month,” said Yu Kan-ping (虞戡平), another director involved in the counter-suit.
Opposition lawmakers have denounced the developments, saying the feud has created the possibility of a government takeover of PTS, a proposal that has been denied by the GIO.
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