The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday vowed to push amendments to the outdated Cable Television Act (有線電視法) to facilitate the transition to a nationwide digital television service.
NCC planning department chief Ji Xiao-zheng (紀效正) said the commission’s goal of doing away with analog TV channels by 2013 would be carried out in three stages.
UNDER-USED
Although 20 percent of the nation’s households were supposed to have made the transition to digital television services by the end of last year, only 3.99 percent of households are using the digital service.
Ji said the department has been examining possible factors hindering the transition, such as the price of digital set-top boxes, and that the commission would consider a research report scheduled to be completed by next month before proposing amendments to the articles in the Cable Television Act to the Legislative Yuan.
SET-TOP BOX
Ji said some commissioners have proposed that cable television service providers be required to provide one free set-top box per family, provide additional set-top boxes at a reduced cost to people who buy or rent them and stop charging customers rental fees once the service providers have recovered the costs of the set-top boxes.
Earlier this month, the commission approved a draft amendment to the Radio and Television Act (衛星廣播電視法), which still needs to be reviewed by the Legislative Yuan.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we