More than 60 civic organizations staged a protest outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday, demanding the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus reconsider a proposal on controlling the budget for Public Television Service (PTS).
The KMT caucus froze the NT$450 million (US$13.5 million) budget for PTS for the second half of this year and has come up with a proposal that all programming budget be approved by the Government Information Office (GIO) first.
The proposal has drawn criticism from the opposition, civic groups, filmmakers and academics, who called it a KMT attempt to control the media.
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said the government would not look into program content, but would only use the mechanism as a budget control measure.
Critics of the measure were not convinced.
Sixty 60 civic groups and 70 film directors have signed a protest letter against the KMT action.
“I think the so-called ‘budget control’ is just an excuse,” said Media Watch chairman Kuang Chung-shiang (管中祥), who led the demonstration.
“Controlling the media is the real goal,” Kuang said.
“Of course there is a control mechanism in public television systems in all countries, but no country does a program by program review like this,” he said.
Lin received the protesters, but the two sides did not reach an agreement.
The demonstrators insisted that the legislature unfreeze the PTS budget and that the KMT caucus change its stance on budget review. Lin agreed that the proposed budget rule may be debated, but said he would not unfreeze the NT$450 million budget for now.
“We've very disappointed with Lin's response. We will continue to act to save the PTS,” Kuang said.
“We will ask GIO Minister Vanessa Shih [史亞平] to help, since she has said that the government has never, and will never put in place censorship at PTS,” he said. “After all, it's the GIO that proposed the PTS budget, and she should make an effort to defend the budget.”
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS