Public Television Service (PTS) chairman Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚) yesterday appealed to the Control Yuan to investigate the Government Information Office (GIO) for allegedly interfering with the television service.
Control Yuan member Yeh Yao-peng (葉耀鵬) accepted the appeal on behalf of the institution.
On Dec. 10 last year, the government watchdog censured the office after then-GIO minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) appointed eight members to the PTS’ board and confirmed their appointments without informing the Democratic Progressive Party of its right to recommend three new members.
The appeal accuses the office of ignoring the Control Yuan’s censure. The appeal also says that over the past eight months, the office has taken action six times against seven members of the PTS board, including asking for an injunction to suspend their positions and asking courts to annul decisions made by the board, in a bid to paralyze the television service.
Cheng said he hopes the Control Yuan will look into how the GIO raised the funds for the lawsuits and hold GIO officials responsible for “squandering public funds.”
At a separate setting yesterday, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said it would not intervene in the PTS’ personnel dispute and can only review the change of board directors.
“The Public Television Service is under the supervision of the GIO. The commission can only ascertain whether the board meeting determining the appointment of board directors is held legally and if the newly-appointed board members fulfill the qualification requirements stated in the Broadcasting and Television Act (廣播電視法),” NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said. “We do not have right to intervene in the PTS’ management change and the dispute between the GIO and the PTS.”
Chen added the commission does not want the dispute between GIO and PTS to affect the interests of the viewers.
The commission yesterday approved the appointment of Lin Chih-hsing (林志興) as the new board director of the PTS.
Despite the NCC’s approval, Lin and Cheng, as well as five other board directors, can neither attend board meetings nor ask others to exercise their rights on their behalf, because of a provisional disposition leveled against them by the GIO on the grounds that they had illegally convened board meetings and made rulings on important cases.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
RSS