The legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday agreed to include Hakka TV in the Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) and let the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation (IPCF) take over Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV) from TBS once it is ready.
The committee started an initial review of amendments to the Public Television Act (公共電視法) on Wednesday, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) and members of the TITV Employees’ Union engaging in a fierce debate on whether TITV should remain part of TBS.
Kung said that as the Act Governing the Creation of the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation (原住民族文化事業基金會設置條例) makes the foundation responsible for running Aboriginal media outlets, the operations of TITV should be transferred from TBS to the IPCF.
However, TITV employees said that while they support an eventual separation of the station from TBS, they preferred to stay with TBS for the moment. In their view, being under the jurisdiction of the Public Television Act ensures a better work environment and higher quality programming.
Lawmakers passed a new clause to the law — which would incorporate Hakka TV into TBS — and two resolutions on the status of TITV.
“The Public Television Foundation shall provide assistance to TITV in program production and airing prior to the issuance of a satellite channel license to IPCF,” the first resolution said.
The second resolution states that IPCF would take over the operations once it receives a license.
“The adoption of the revised clause, along with the resolutions, is acceptable to the employees,” said Piyu Asiku Sinsing, a board member of the union and a program producer at TITV.
“This will give IPCF more time to prepare before it starts operating TITV independently, while giving employees a chance to monitor preparations during the transitional period,” he said.
Hakka TV vice director Phil Tang (湯昇榮) said he was very satisfied with the arrangement, as the revision would allow Hakka TV to become “a true TV station.”
Hakka TV is currently under the jurisdiction of the Council for Hakka Affairs and is outsourced to TBS.
“Whenever we want to do something, we must go through a complicated bureaucratic process, which reduces efficiency,” Tang said. “We’re also barred from making a profit with our programs, as we are part of the government.”
Tang said Hakka TV had received many inquiries from TV stations in Hakka-speaking areas in China and Southeast Asia about buying their programs, but the station had no choice but to give it to them for free.
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