Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators yesterday set up a task force to investigate the National Communications Commission (NCC) and affiliated organizations under the Legislative Yuan’s new powers of inquiry.
The probe, the first using the controversial powers, would investigate allegations that the government influenced the NCC to approve Mirror Media’s application to establish Mirror TV.
A motion, jointly proposed by the legislature’s Transportation Committee and the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, called for establishing a task force that would begin an investigation if at least one-third of its members are present, adding that all resolutions must receive supporting votes from half of all attending members.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Issues cannot be voted on if there are only three attending members at a meeting, which can be conducted behind closed doors, the motion says.
The task force was authorized to start its investigation yesterday and continue until Dec. 31, a deadline that can be extended if task force members consent, the motion says.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the legislature should have been notified if a joint meeting of caucuses was to be held and that the legislature already has a task force to address the Mirror TV issue.
Having two committees investigate the same issue contravenes the law, it said.
Established in March, the Transportation Committee’s investigative task force said its mandate has ended, effective immediately, adding that it would turn over all its findings.
The committee’s task force said that the NCC was uncooperative throughout the investigation and had used technicalities to delay the process.
Mirror TV yesterday said that despite the passage of the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法), its legality is in question as it awaits a Constitutional Court review.
The government’s establishing three separate committees to investigate one media company was unprecedented and harms journalistic liberties, the channel said, referring to the committee formed in March, a task force that TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said he would establish and the current special cross-committee task force.
The company said that that it has provided statements and proof that its establishment was in full accordance with the law, adding that the legislators’ actions were regrettable.
Mirror TV has undergone the longest review in Taiwan’s history and was also the first to be targeted with 42 unequal addendums to its applications, it said.
Despite these challenges the company’s intent on providing media oversight has not changed, it added.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS