Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Pasuya Yao (
"We learned of this from the 2005 annual budget report by Hong Kong's TVBS board," he said.
Yao said the report stated that Hong Kong Bermuda TVB Investment Co Ltd, one of TVBS' subsidiaries, has increased its share of TVBS from 70 percent to 100 percent by purchasing more shares from Taiwan's Countless Entertainment (Taiwan) Co Ltd, and that the deal was completed on March 21.
TVBS is registered under the name of Liann Yee Production Co, of which Countless Entertainment Co is the major shareholder.
"I think this clearly shows that the TV station is a now completely foreign-owned company. If that is the case, the GIO is authorized to suspend all operation licenses for its four channels," he said.
Yao said the GIO would request TVBS to explain its circumstances tomorrow. He also posed four questions to the cable station yesterday.
He said the first question Countless Entertainment Co, and how a company with capital of only NT$1 million (US$29,800), could possess TVBS shares worth around NT$500 million.
Yao asked why the Countless Entertainment Co is located in the same building as the TV station, and speculated that the firm was a front.
He then asked how it was possible for Countless' president and Bermuda's president to swap, before finally wondering if TVBS' annual budget report was dependable.
Speaking on the sidelines of a campaign event yesterday, Premier Frank Hsieh (
On Friday, the GIO issued a NT$200,000 fine to TVBS for failing to report a change in its stock ownership when it applied for a renewal of its license earlier this year. The fine was issued after a TVBS talkshow alleged that a number of top government officials were corrupt, including former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男).
Yao denied there was any connection between the allegations and the probe into TVBS.
TVBS chairman Norman Leung's (梁乃鵬) background as former chairman of the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority became the focus of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, who complained that the cable station was actually a Chinese-sponsored station and was being taken advantage of by Beijing to create unrest in Taiwan.
TVBS spokeswoman Yeh Yu-chun (
"By law, foreign shares cannot exceed 50 percent of the company. That is what we are at now," she said.
Yeh said TVBS is now co-owned by the Taiwan-based Oriental (53 percent) and British Bermuda (47 percent).
Asked whether TVBS regarded the GIO's action as akin to "white terror" and a retaliation against its talkshow's allegations of official graft, Yeh said this was something that TVBS management would avoid thinking about.
"We still want to believe that truth and justice still exist," she said.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that if the government moved to kill off a cable TV station for exposing scandals involving the government, then the public would react in protest.
Ma said the funding issue was a legal problem and that the government should not "manipulate the law to satisfy its political desires."
The People First Party blasted the GIO for what it said was an attempt to shift public attention away from the Kaohsiung MRT corruption scandal.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS