The Executive Yuan on Tuesday assigned Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) to serve as acting chairman of the National Communications Commission (NCC) after the Legislative Yuan last month approved amendments to the National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家傳訊傳播委員會組織法) that would remove clauses allowing a chairperson to extend their term.
Wong’s term as NCC vice chairman ended yesterday, as did the terms of Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) as chairman, and Lin Li-yun (林麗雲) and Wang Wei-ching (王維菁) as commissioners.
Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) yesterday said that as half of the NCC committee concluded their terms simultaneously, the Executive Yuan appointed Wong as acting chairman according to articles 4 and 5 of the act.
Photo: Tsai Si-pei, Taipei Times
Wong is taking over “in full accordance with the law” and the Executive Yuan was not “appointing” him to the position, Chen said.
Lin and Wang called for the reviews of NCC committee members to be expedited, citing concerns that the remaining members lack a professional aptitude and could err in their review of media-related incidents.
The remaining members are professionals in telecommunications, law and economics, but there are no broadcasting media experts among them, they said.
Competition between media firms has led to news channels relying on government contracts, a situation that has further polarized news channels on either side of the political spectrum and undermined the credibility of the fourth estate, they said.
Mainstream media are beginning to lose out against Internet sources, they added.
The NCC is obligated to oversee the media, and should institute measures to assess and control competition among media groups, Lin and Wang said.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that the spirit of the law, despite the amendments not having been promulgated, was clearly to stop NCC committee members from repeatedly having their appointments extended.
The Executive Yuan’s argument that the amendments have not yet taken effect are unacceptable, Huang said.
Wong’s appointment as acting chairman was questionable, Huang added, citing Wong’s involvement in allegedly leaking classified secrets when reviewing TV channel license applications.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus member Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said that the Executive Yuan’s actions did not “disrespect” the legislature, as they observed proper legal procedure.
DPP Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said the legislature should expedite review of the NCC committee member nominees so that it could operate at full strength as soon as possible.
Lai added that hopefully there would be an extraordinary meeting this month to achieve that goal.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS