The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday approved Formosa Hakka Radio’s (寶島客家電台) application to have its programs aired on other radio stations, but said it must first address the issue of embedded marketing in some of its programs.
Formosa Hakka is a non-profit radio station that receives subsidies from the Council for Hakka Affairs, commission spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said.
Chen said the commission had taped Formosa Hakka’s programs and found that two of them may have violated regulations banning embedded marketing from the government.
The commission will turn these two programs over to a content review committee composed of media experts not affiliated with the commission and let them determine if the programs had violated the Budget Act (預算法), he added.
Chen said that some people had accused the commission of being strict in dealing with embedded marketing from private businesses, but not with that involving the government.
NCC commissioners have decided to address that issue through this case, he said.
After asking the management of Formosa Hakka Radio to appear and answer questions from NCC commissioners yesterday, Chen said the commissioners spent almost an entire morning deliberating the case.
Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the commission’s communications content department, said two of the programs mentioned that they were sponsored by the Council for Hakka Affairs.
Moreover, they spent a considerable amount of time during the programs to promote an award hosted by the council.
“One of the programs, called 937 Hakka Cafe, was a two-hour program, but the host spent an hour interviewing the winners of the CFA award,” Ho said as an example.
“We will let the Directorate- General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics [the agency responsible for execution and compliance with the Budget Act] review the case and send it to the content review committee as well,” Ho said.
An amendment in the Budget Act requires that all government agencies and state-run enterprises to clearly mark policy advocacy as advertising.
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