Scores of pirate radio station operators protested vociferously against the National Communica-tions Commission (NCC) yesterday in a continuation of clashes that have simmered since June.
Held back by rows of police in riot gear, angry protesters spat at pictures of commission members and burnt copies of the Constitution over what they said was the NCC's lack of legitimacy.
"The threshold that the NCC has set for licensed stations is NT$50 million [US$1.5 million] in assets and capital, which puts licensing totally out of reach of independent operators," said Tsai Chi-feng (蔡吉豐), a pirate radio station owner.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
"Local and non-mainstream Taiwanese voices are being silenced," Tsai said, adding that the crackdown was part of the NCC's "secret scheme to let the pro-China media monopolize the media market" in the country.
The commission has been cracking down hard on pirate stations, which are generally considered more sympathetic toward Taiwan independence.
So far this year, the commission has shut down more than 500 such outfits, according to Hsu Ming-tse (
The commission itself was declared unconstitutional by the Council of Grand Justices in July because of the party-based nomination method for its members.
However, the current members will serve until the end of their term in January 2008.
"They have no authority to shut us down when they have constitutional problems themselves," Hsu said.
"We will be willing to work with the next group of commissioners, elected constitutionally, but not the current NCC," Hsu said.
The commission did not respond to the protest.
An administrator who declined to be named told the Taipei Times that the commission did not meet with the protesters because the protesters did not submit their complaints in the proper manner.
Despite the fact that stations are continually being shut down and their equipment confiscated, Tsai said station owners continue to play cat and mouse with the commission.
"We will keep fighting ... we are regrouping and rebroadcasting as soon as soon as they shut us down," Tsai said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
RSS