The National Communications Commission (NCC) should be tough when it reviews a license renewal application by CTi News, the New Power Party (NPP) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Five new commissioners are to take office on Monday next week, including NCC Acting Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥), who is to be chairman.
The commission said that it has received a CTi News license renewal application, which the channel is required to file at least six months before the license expires.
Photo: Wu Shu-wei, Taipei Times
NPP Chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said that the time has come to check whether CTi News has kept promises it made six years ago and all eyes are watching the application.
The channel in 2014 promised that it would have a news ombudsman oversee the quality of its reporting, but it did not fill the position until after the commission last year fined it NT$500,000, NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
The penalty was handed down four days before the anti-red media protest on June 23 last year, Chiu said, referring to a rally in Taipei against media firms that spread fabricated news for China.
Chen, an expert in administrative law, should know better than anyone that these promises were conditions under which the commission renewed the channel’s license, Chiu said, adding that the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法) also authorizes the commission to take action, including nullifying approval.
However, the commission simply let CTi News ignore the conditions, he said.
“Given the channel’s record, it is hard to imagine that the commission would renew its license. We hope that the new commissioners would do better than their predecessors in being tough when reviewing the application,” he said.
On the issue of establishing a ministry of digital development, Hsu said that the NPP supports having a dedicated agency in charge of developing digital services and products, but it should not weaken the commission’s function as an independent regulator of the media.
Campaign for Media Reform representative Eve Chiu (邱家宜) said that the government should not turn the commission into a ministry of digital development, as that would give it conflicting responsibilities as an overseer of content and content creators.
Regarding a draft bill governing management of over-the-top (OTT) platform operators, which the commission made public last week, Hsu said that the party agrees that operators should be regulated and that tax revenue from offshore operators should help fund local media content.
Chunghwa Telecom has the most resources, so it should take the lead in the local OTT industry, she said.
Regarding Chinese OTT operators, Chiu Hsien-chih and Netizen and Democracy Association Chairman Tai Chi-chuan (戴季全) said that the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) regulate them.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
NEW CASE REPORTED: A man who returned from South Africa on a flight with the nation’s 460th and 461st cases has now tested positive for the disease The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that there is no need to test all arrivals to the nation for COVID-19, a policy the Executive Yuan supports. The center reported one new imported case, bringing the nation’s tally of confirmed cases to 477. The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 60s who on July 25 returned from South Africa, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman. The man had returned to Taiwan on the same flight as cases Nos. 460 and 461, reported on July 27, Chuang said. On July 24,
RSS