New Tang Dynasty Television Asia-Pacific (NTD-AP) on Monday lamented what it called a lack of progress in an ongoing dispute with Chunghwa Telecom, which on April 11 announced that it would not renew the station’s broadcasting license after it expires in August.
During an interdepartmental meeting on Tuesday last week attended by officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), the National Communications Commission (NCC) and representatives from NTD, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said Chunghwa needed to protect Taiwan’s democratic -principles and to continue its satellite contract with NTD-AP.
In remarks seen as promising by the station, Wu said he wanted Chunghwa to give NTD-AP priority on a new satellite that will enter service in August and that if there really was insufficient bandwidth, as Chunghwa says, the company should rent another satellite with the same coverage as the current one and continue servicing NTD-AP.
In its announcement that it would not renew NTD-AP’s license after it expires on Aug. 9, -Chunghwa said the new ST-2 satellite, which it operates with Singapore Telecom Co (SingTel) and which was launched on May 20, did not have enough transponders and therefore provided insufficient bandwidth to continue broadcasting the NTD-AP signal.
NTD and media freedom organizations say that Chunghwa’s decision may have been the result of pressure from Beijing and have called for an investigation.
“The contradictions in the reason given by Chunghwa Telecom for not renewing the contract and the supposed limitations of the new satellite’s technical capacity suggest that the real reasons lie elsewhere,” Reporters Without Borders said in a press release on May 24.
“The similarities of this dispute and the dispute between NTD-AP’s parent station, NTD-TV, and the French satellite operator Eutelsat, make us fear the worst,” it said, in reference to the decision in June 2008 to suspend NTD’s use of -Eutelsat’s W5 satellite to broadcast to Asia, ostensibly as a result of pressure from Beijing.
The New York City-based NTD is known for its reportage that has been critical of the Chinese government.
A Singapore-based source told the Taipei Times on May 6 that although the ST-2 satellite had more transponders and greater bandwidth than the ST-1, which currently transmits the NTD-AP signal and is to be decommissioned in August, Chunghwa’s share in the satellite was smaller and therefore its bandwidth allocation was more limited.
Early last month the NCC announced it would look into the matter.
However, in a press release on Monday, NTD said the NCC had only conducted an “administrative check” and had yet to fully investigate the matter, adding that it also had yet to hear from Chunghwa on how it intended to resolve the impasse.
“At the end of the day, -Chunghwa still hasn’t offered any material to prove there is insufficient bandwidth and no explanation has been given to us by the NCC as to when they will conduct further investigation,” NTD-AP spokeswoman Theresa Chu (朱婉琪) told the Taipei Times when contacted for clarifications yesterday.
Asked for comment, NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said the commission had so far only heard explanations from Chunghwa and had yet to thoroughly investigate whether the nation’s largest telecoms company was indeed short of bandwidth to provide quality service, as it said.
“The Executive Yuan has already intervened and Premier Wu has spoken on this matter,” Chen added. “Now it is up to Chunghwa and the MOTC to decide what they are going to do next.”
“It has yet to come to the point where the NCC has to step in,” Chen said. “We will see what Chunghwa’s decision is and handle the matter in accordance with the law.”
Chen said the NCC was only authorized by the law to conduct administrative checks and to determine whether NTD-AP was indeed treated unfairly.
In its statement, NTD also said the station had made it clear to Chunghwa during a meeting with company representatives on Thursday that broadcasts should continue on a state-controlled satellite service, as this would ensure governmental protection against disruptions, which would not be possible if a privately owned satellite were used.
The MOTC owns 35.41 percent of Chunghwa shares.
‘SMEAR CAMPAIGN’: The ‘Global Times’ accused the DPP of offering politicians in Somaliland bribes and promoting Taiwanese independence by funding US think tanks The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denounced China’s Global Times for disseminating disinformation about Taiwan, after the Chinese state-run newspaper claimed that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has been bribing Somaliland politicians. Taiwan in August last year inaugurated the Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland, which is the nation’s only representative office whose title uses just the name “Taiwan.” The East African country also established a representative office in Taipei, despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations. The Chinese-language Global Times on Monday accused the DPP of offering Somaliland politicians and their families considerable bribes, citing anonymous sources. The International Cooperation
Phase 2 clinical trial results of the Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday were published on the Web site of The Lancet: Respiratory Medicine, in an early preview before publication. The study paves the way for other nations to issue emergency use authorizations or produce the Medigen vaccine, given The Lancet’s credibility as a highly respected medical journal with a rigorous peer-review process, Medigen’s international affairs director Lien Chia-en (連加恩) said. Lien said that the study is important as it proposes methods for converting international units for efficacy comparisons. The methods have been used for correlating the efficacy of hepatitis B
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday in his Double Ten National Day message accused the Democratic Progressive Party government of inciting fear and anti-China sentiment, while making an appeal to Beijing to accept Taiwan’s existence. After attending the morning celebrations outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, Ko, who is chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), wrote on Facebook a “happy birthday” message to the Republic of China (ROC) in which he reflected on the nation’s values, and condemned partisan politics and Chinese aggression. In the 110 years since Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) founded Asia’s first democratic republic, the ROC on Taiwan
Ambassador Theaters on Tuesday announced that its Breeze Center cinemas in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) would close late this month after screening thousands of major Hollywood movies and local favorites over two decades. Ambassador Theaters, one of the largest cinema chain operators in Taiwan, said that Oct. 25 would be the last day the Breeze Center cinemas screen movies, adding that its lease expires on that day. “We sincerely appreciate the support and recognition from audiences in Taipei over the past 20 years,” the company said. “We look forward to seeing you again in the future.” The cinemas started operating in 2001, upon
RSS