After a review of almost a year, the National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday approved a change of management at TVBS Media, with three conditions, including that the cable television network must recruit a media professional to be its new president.
TVBS submitted a management change application in August last year after VIA Technologies chairman Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦) was elected by its board of directors to be the network’s president and chairman.
Chen is the husband of HTC Corp founder Cher Wang (王雪紅), who purchased the network from Hong Kong-based Television Broadcasts in 2016. The couple own a majority of TVBS Media shares.
The commission’s first condition is that Chen must not serve as chairman and president simultaneously, and the network must recruit a new president with extensive media experience within a month after the posted date of the ruling, whose employment must win commission approval, NCC spokesperson Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said.
Second, TVBS Media’s chairman and president must sign an editorial code of ethics with its news department within one week of a new president being hired, and it must submit a copy of the code to the commission, Hsiao said.
Third, the network must fulfill its promise to add an outside director to its board, someone with a background in journalism and no holdings in the company, within six months after the posted date of the ruling, Hsiao said.
Should it fail to meet any of these conditions, the commission could nullify its approval, based on the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法), Hsiao added.
TVBS’ application was approved under these conditions as the management would determine if the network can operate independently and professionally, the commission said.
NCC commissioners had asked Chen, network vice chairman Arthur Ting (丁廣鋐) and other managers to meet with them and answer questions, it added.
The commission also asked the network to hold regular board meetings and other meetings, according to the laws governing corporate management, and to provide the commission with a copy of the minutes of the board meetings.
The network should also abide by regulations governing cross-strait exchange and related party disclosures, it said.
As part of its review, the commission asked TVBS Media to provide a formal explanation of its removal of an interview with American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty from its Web site after broadcasting it just once before the nine-in-one local elections in November 2018.
The commission’s investigation also found that the network held a board meeting on June 30, nearly a year after Chen was elected chairman.
Local media reported that TVBS was one of the Taiwanese media outlets that attended the fourth “Cross-Strait Media People Summit” in May last year in Beijing, where Chinese officials reiterated that the media’s responsibility was to promote peaceful unification across the Taiwan Strait and the “one country, two systems” model.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS