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.
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