On Friday, the National Communications Commission (NCC) called a public hearing to discuss the takeover of the China Times group by Want Want China Holdings Ltd (中國旺旺控股). It was a rushed hearing with too many restrictions on public participation, making it impossible to measure public opinion.
The NCC should hold more hearings and allow a detailed investigation into the source of Want Want Group’s capital and shareholding structure, as well as the effect of cross-media management on market competition and public interests.
The conflict over the China Times (中國時報), China Television (CTV, 中視), and CTiTV (中天電視) began with calls for political parties, government and the military to withdraw from the media, which resulted in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) transferring its holdings in the China Times and the Broadcasting Corporation of China (中廣) to former China Times chairman Albert Yu (余建新), thus creating cross-media management.
The first-term NCC handled the case by passively referring to “formal external legality” to bypass the ban on cross-media management of newspapers and radio or TV stations in the enforcement rules of the Radio and Television Act (廣播電視法).
The shareholding structure announced by the NCC shows that Want Want chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), by buying shares through two family-owned enterprises, now owns 100 percent of the China Times, 68.12 percent of shares in CtiTV and 44.5 percent of CTV.
It is clear that his shareholdings flout regulations in the Radio and Television Act on cross-media ownership. As stipulated by Articles 18 and 19 of the Act’s enforcement rules, Tsai has declared that these are his private investments. But the application form gives the family-owned enterprises as the shareholders, thus raising the question of whether restrictions applying to natural or to legal persons should be used. In practice, Tsai owns all three media outlets, and he is dispelling any doubt by stressing ownership of the three companies in all internal and external statements.
As far as readers, viewers and employees are concerned, Want Want at present controls the influence wielded by these three media outlets; it is not a future possibility being investigated by the NCC. Under the former ownership of the Yu family, we saw the combined power wielded by the three outlets, with strong promotion of the family’s programs in the news, as well as news content being determined by the group’s business interests.
Today, the Want Want logo is used by the three media outlets and on reporters’ name cards, clearly displaying cross-media ownership. In terms of content, the development toward unitary and positive reporting on China and the Taiwanese government is harming the rights of both media workers and readers and viewers.
Want Want’s simultaneous ownership of these three media outlets violates the spirit of legislation aimed at protecting fair competition and the public interest. We therefore call on the NCC to reject this change in stock ownership.
The NCC should also use the investigation of this case to establish a set of transparent procedures and strict standards for investigating media mergers and conduct a review of shortcomings in legislation and policies. This is the only way to safeguard fair and orderly market competition, the diversification of media content, the rights and interest of readers and viewers and the right of media workers to be independent.
Hung Chen-ling is an assistant professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Journalism. Chad Liu is an assistant professor at National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Communications.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
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