The government must stop purchasing products from media outlets that publish propaganda from Beijing, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday, adding that tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars is spent by government agencies every year on pro-China media companies.
“There is no reason that taxpayer dollars should be used to fund a foreign state’s proxy in Taiwan,” Huang told a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Taipei.
Unnecessary purchases from media outlets that serve Beijing’s interests go against the government’s goal of fighting Chinese infiltration and media manipulation, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Want Want China Times Media Group — which owns the Chinese-language China Times newspaper and CtiTV — last year received more than NT$172 million (US$5.46 million) for tender bids from central and local governments, Huang said, citing statistics that he collated.
The number has been increasing since 2008, when the group earned more than NT$14 million from government bids, he said.
In addition, the central government has spent a disproportionately large amount on office purchases from Want Want, he said.
For example, 21 percent of central government agencies are subscribers to the China Times, while only 15 percent are subscribed to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Huang added.
However, the China Times accounts for only 14.1 percent of the newspaper market, compared with the Liberty Times’ 42.2 percent, he said.
Although there are no laws banning purchases from media outlets biased toward Beijing, the central and local governments could at least not buy from them when they have a choice, Huang said.
The public should be more aware of media outlets that fawn on Beijing and join a march against pro-China media outlets he is to hold with Internet celebrity Holger Chen (陳之漢) in Taipei on Sunday, Huang said.
On Sunday evening, he launched a crowdfunding campaign for the march and reached the goal of NT$1.8 million in about an hour, Huang said, adding that more than 300 people have volunteered to help with the event.
He has invited political party leaders and presidential hopefuls to attend the march and so far Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) have said they would not attend, while NPP Chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said he would, Huang said.
The march is to begin on Ketagalan Boulevard at 3pm on Sunday and end at 5:30pm, the NPP said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS