National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) yesterday told reporters that he is not seeking a third term at the agency due to a secondment agreement with National Taipei University (NTPU), adding that the commission is to address SET TV’s illegal investment in Homeplus Digital at a meeting today.
“My second term expires on July 31 and the university allowed me to temporarily transfer to the government agency for no more than eight years... The NCC’s duties have changed since the establishment of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, and Internet governance is expected to be the focus of the agency,” Chen said.
NCC commissioners are to deliberate over penalties to be handed to Homeplus Digital and SET TV at the weekly commissioners’ meeting today.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The management of the multiple systems operator broke its promises to the NCC when the agency approved a transaction in 2018. SET TV cofounder Chang Rong-hua (張榮華) was found to have invested in upper-tier shareholders of Homeplus Digital, an investigation showed.
SET TV’s iNews channel was soon placed on channel 48 on cable systems owned by Homeplus following the illegal investment, the commission said.
“Homeplus, a cable service, is regulated by the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法), but the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), which regulates channels, does not have a clear regulations on investments conducted by shareholders of TV networks. Such an issue would be addressed through an amendment to the Satellite Broadcasting Act,” Chen said, adding that iNews would be under close scrutiny during its mid-term performance review.
However, Chen said that Homeplus’ breach of its promises is unlikely to constitute revocation of its operating license.
Asked if CTi News would be allowed to air on channel 52 again, Chen said that the matter would have to be discussed by new NCC commissioners in August.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching