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.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
RSS