The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it is inviting San Want Holdings Ltd chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), the largest shareholder of CTi News (中天新聞), to attend an administrative hearing on the news channel’s license renewal application on Monday next week.
NCC Commissioner Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) is to preside over the hearing, alongside NCC commissioners Wang Wei-ching (王維菁) and Lin Li-yun (林麗雲), it said.
“We fully respect San Want’s right to have an attorney represent them at the hearing. However, as the hearing would tackle many practical issues concerning the management and operation of the news channel, we feel that Mr Tsai would be the best person to attend the hearing, as he would have the most profound and comprehensive understanding on the direction that the news channel is heading and other relevant information,” the commission said in a statement.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
“As the media regulator, we would also like to use this opportunity to forge a dialogue with media outlets and talk about how we can better facilitate people’s participation in public affairs. As such, we sincerely invite Mr Tsai to attend the administrative hearing in person and make a dialogue between the government and media outlets possible,” it added.
CTi News is part of the Want Want China Times Media Group, which was formed after Tsai’s Want Want Holdings Ltd purchased the China Times Group in 2008. Its license is set to expire by the end of this year.
The commission last month announced that it would hold an administrative hearing to help it review its license renewal application, the first time that it would hold such a hearing.
The commission’s decision is widely believed to be related to the channel’s performance in the past four years, during which it has accumulated NT$10.73 million (US$370,870) in fines for contravening media regulations.
The commission’s extension of a personal invitation to Tsai took many by surprise, as it had never issued an official statement on inviting specific people to attend administrative hearings, but had normally left it to the discretion of the parties involved.
However, some see the commission’s announcement as a strategic move, after the Chinese-language China Times — another member of the Want Want China Times Media Group — on Wednesday last week began special coverage of CTi News’ license renewal application.
The newspaper yesterday dedicated a full page to stories critical of the NCC and its decision to hold a hearing.
The commission said that it is Tsai’s right, but not an obligation, to attend the hearing.
His absence at the hearing will neither affect the effectiveness of the hearing nor harm the interests of the parties involved, it said.
The NCC further defended its decision to hold a hearing by citing Article No. 10 of the National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) and the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法), which authorizes the commission to convene public hearings to help it review administrative orders, plans and dispositions concerning public interests.
Parties involved in the case as well as relevant stakeholders would be asked to submit written statements before the hearing, the administration said, adding that it would also broadcast the entire hearing online on Monday.
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學：兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
The Council of Agriculture yesterday signed a Taiwan-Australia Agricultural Cooperation Implementation clause to open a new export market for the nation’s pineapple crop. The clause is an addition to existing cooperation measures, it said. China on Friday last week abruptly announced that it would suspend pineapple imports from Taiwan starting on Monday, on grounds that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful organisms” in shipments of the fruit. The public and private sectors have since joined hands to purchase the local fruit to help the nation’s pineapple farmers. Canberra has requested that all pineapples for export to Australia have their crown buds removed,
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
DISSATISFACTION? If the referendums collect more than 700,000 signatures each, they would have gotten the most signatures in the shortest time, the party said The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two referendum petitions — one on banning the importation of pork with traces of ractopamine and the other on holding referendums on the same day as national elections — had as of Thursday gathered 691,398 and 674,497 signatures respectively, the party said yesterday. If the petitions collect more than 700,000 signatures apiece, they would have garnered the most signatures in the shortest time since the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was amended in 2017, party officials said. The KMT proposed the “anti-ractopamine pork” or “food safety” referendum just days after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement on Aug. 28 last
RSS