Despite an official invitation from the National Communications Commission (NCC), Want Want China Broadband said this weekend that the chairman of its parent firm, Want Want China Times Group, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), will not attend today’s public hearing because of concerns that his presence would “blur the focus” of the company’s bid for the 11 cable TV channels owned by China Network Systems (CNS).
The NCC decided last month to hold another public hearing over Want Want’s bid for CNS following one administrative and one public hearing in 2011.
While Tsai was invited to attend today’s hearing, Want Want China Broadband issued a statement he would only participate if the NCC promised to rule on the proposed acquisition within two weeks of the start of the process.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Tsai’s special assistant, Chao Yu-pei (趙育培), said Tsai had been advised by his staff not to attend because the commission had not yet responded positively to the company’s request.
Chao added that as Tsai is merely a shareholder in the deal, any questions directed at him would be largely irrelevant to the hearing itself. Chao said he would represent Tsai at the hearing along with Tsai’s son, Tsai Shao-chung (蔡紹中).
Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica who is part of a group of academics opposed to the deal, said they would request that the NCC hold a further administrative hearing and that Tsai should be compelled to attend.
“When lawmakers in the UK -investigated the News of the World phone hacking scandal, both Rupert Murdoch and his son attended the hearing and answered questions from the lawmakers,” Huang said.
“People have questioned if Tsai [Eng-meng] is qualified to run a media company after his comments to the Washington Post [in an interview in January] as well as other controversies. He wants the commission to quickly rule on the case, yet he did not attend the public hearing to clarify those doubts. His motivation and his actions were very questionable,” Huang said.
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
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
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
RSS