The New Power Party (NPP) caucus yesterday proposed draft legislation to prevent media monopolies and to maintain media pluralism to address issues that sparked protests against media monopolization in 2012.
The proposal seeks to limit media mergers, stipulating that a company cannot own more than three of the seven types of media businesses — cable TV; terrestrial TV; Internet protocol broadcasts; national radio stations; news and business channels; national daily newspapers; and channel distribution agencies — to prevent media conglomerates from interfering with freedom of the press.
The draft upholds the principle of “separation between media and financial institutions,” prohibiting holding companies, banks and insurance companies, as well as their owners, from launching, operating or controlling a media company in any way to prevent wealthy companies and individuals from meddling with media autonomy.
“The draft bill derives from the movement against media monopolization in 2012 and 2013. The act was formulated based on protesters’ demands to draw a red line against the concentration of media ownership,” NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
The movement against the monopolization of the media arose from a planned merger between Want Want China Times Group and a major cable TV network provider, as well as the group’s purchase of Next Media Group’s media outlets.
According to the NPP’s draft, media companies should entitle their employees to the right to select an independent board member that does not have any relationship with the company to improve public interest.
Public interest groups should be allowed to file lawsuits against media mergers that could lead to the concentration of media ownership or against government agencies that fail to protect the freedoms of speech and media pluralism.
A “newsroom agreement” should be negotiated between owners and employees of media companies to ensure autonomous working conditions, and agreements should have the same legal force as other agreements made between employers and employees, the draft stipulated.
The draft also proposed the establishment of a “media pluralism fund” to encourage local providers to produce their own programming. TV and radio stations would be required to divert 1 percent of their yearly revenue to the fund if more than 30 percent of the programs they air are not produced in Taiwan.
“Although the major parties formulated and touted similar draft legislation against media monopolization in 2013, which was reviewed by the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee, the bill was not submitted to the general assembly for approval due to lobbying by interest groups. Hence, we have to start all over again,” Huang said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS