The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and other pan-green parties yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) championing of free speech and media freedom in connection with the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) decision not to renew CTi News’ license, citing the KMT’s actions and atrocities committed during the Martial Law era.
“It is common knowledge in Taiwan that boss of CTi News, Tsai Eng-ming (蔡衍明), has huge business interests in China, and that CTi News has acted as a spokesperson and proxy for Chinese Communist Party [CCP] in Taiwan,” the TSU said in a statement.
“After the NCC’s decision, the voices denouncing the move as ‘restricting free speech’ and ‘infringing on media freedom’ all came from the KMT, other pro-China political parties and their followers,” it said.
“These people are the least qualified to talk about freedom of speech and media freedom, but now they are speaking out to denounce the NCC for carrying out a ‘White Terror’ by denying to renew CTi News’ license,” the TSU said. “It is the chilling to hear their comments, which instill fear into our society.”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party also issued statements.
“The DPP had always defended free speech and media freedom. The NCC is an independent body, and authorized by law to conduct review on broadcasting media license renewal for broadcasting media at end of every six years, for the public’s interest,” DPP spokesman Liu Kang-yen (劉康彥) said.
“The KMT must stop its partisan wrangling for its own interest. We urge the KMT to respect the NCC’s autonomy and the expertise and professional experience of the commissioners,” he said.
When the KMT was in power under then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the government in 2010 refused to renew the license for ERA TV’s entertainment channel, while academics have said that the UK had denied to renew a TV news network’s license, he said.
“The news media are in the public domain and should serve the common interest, as they have a great influence on the society. We saw in yesterday’s statement from Reporters Without Borders [RSF] that the commission’s investigation is legitimate, and a periodic licensure review by an independent agency is standard procedure in democratic countries,” he said.
“The RSF also said it does not believe the decision had infringed on freedom of the press,” Liu said.
Taiwan Statebuilding Party officials said that the NCC’s decision was a good opportunity to make changes to Taiwan’s media landscape to better serve the public.
“Our party members welcome the move, as we had earlier listed many reasons not to renew the license, including CTi News disseminating a prodigious amount of fabricated news and disinformation, the infiltration of its ranks of elements belonging to an enemy state, its numerous violations of broadcast media regulations, and its buying other outlets to monopolize a large portion of Taiwan’s media landscape, which had, in effect, undermined media freedom,” the party said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS