The legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday agreed to include Hakka TV in the Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) and let the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation (IPCF) take over Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV) from TBS once it is ready.
The committee started an initial review of amendments to the Public Television Act (公共電視法) on Wednesday, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) and members of the TITV Employees’ Union engaging in a fierce debate on whether TITV should remain part of TBS.
Kung said that as the Act Governing the Creation of the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation (原住民族文化事業基金會設置條例) makes the foundation responsible for running Aboriginal media outlets, the operations of TITV should be transferred from TBS to the IPCF.
However, TITV employees said that while they support an eventual separation of the station from TBS, they preferred to stay with TBS for the moment. In their view, being under the jurisdiction of the Public Television Act ensures a better work environment and higher quality programming.
Lawmakers passed a new clause to the law — which would incorporate Hakka TV into TBS — and two resolutions on the status of TITV.
“The Public Television Foundation shall provide assistance to TITV in program production and airing prior to the issuance of a satellite channel license to IPCF,” the first resolution said.
The second resolution states that IPCF would take over the operations once it receives a license.
“The adoption of the revised clause, along with the resolutions, is acceptable to the employees,” said Piyu Asiku Sinsing, a board member of the union and a program producer at TITV.
“This will give IPCF more time to prepare before it starts operating TITV independently, while giving employees a chance to monitor preparations during the transitional period,” he said.
Hakka TV vice director Phil Tang (湯昇榮) said he was very satisfied with the arrangement, as the revision would allow Hakka TV to become “a true TV station.”
Hakka TV is currently under the jurisdiction of the Council for Hakka Affairs and is outsourced to TBS.
“Whenever we want to do something, we must go through a complicated bureaucratic process, which reduces efficiency,” Tang said. “We’re also barred from making a profit with our programs, as we are part of the government.”
Tang said Hakka TV had received many inquiries from TV stations in Hakka-speaking areas in China and Southeast Asia about buying their programs, but the station had no choice but to give it to them for free.
TECH SECTOR: Nvidia Corp also announced its intent to build an overseas headquarters in Taiwan, with Taipei and New Taipei City each attempting to woo the US chipmaker The US-based Super Micro Computer Inc and Taiwan’s Guo Rui on Wednesday announced a joint venture to build a computation center powered only by renewable energy. After meeting with Supermicro founder Charles Liang (梁見後) and Guo Rui chairman Lin Po-wen (林博文), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) instructed a cross-ministry panel to be established to help promote the government’s green energy policies and facilitate efforts to obtain land for the generation of green power, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said. Cho thanked Liang for his company’s support of the government’s 2019 Action Plan for Welcoming Overseas Taiwanese Businesses to Return to Invest in
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated