The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday fined a cable television system in central Taiwan NT$1.6 million (US$54,043) because members of a politically prominent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) family were shareholders, contravening regulations banning investment in media outlets by the government, public officials, political parties and the military.
The commission said that it launched an investigation after receiving reports about the alleged breaches in January.
The investigation found that KMT Legislator Hsieh Yi-fong’s (謝衣鳳) father, Hsieh Hhsin-lung (謝新隆), and sister, Hsieh Pei-ying (謝佩穎), held a 25.89 percent stake in Changhua County’s SD TV (三大有線電視) through a legal entity from Jan. 25, 2010, to April 7 of this year.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
While Hsieh Yi-fong was only elected in January this year, her mother, Cheng Ru-feng (鄭汝芬), served as a KMT legislator from 2008 to 2016, while her brother, Hsieh Tien-lin (謝典霖), has been Changhua County Council speaker since 2009, the commission said.
Article 10 of the Cable Radio and Television Act (有線廣播電視法) not only bans political party workers, political appointees and elected officials from investing in cable systems, it limits the shareholdings in a cable system by their spouses, relatives by blood within the second degree of relationship and lineal relatives by marriage to no more than 1 percent of the issued shares.
“Mr Hsieh Hsin-lung and Ms Hsieh Pei-yin have been SD TV board members since Jan. 26, 2005. As the chairman of the board, Mr Hsieh Hsin-lung should be completely familiar with the shareholding restrictions in the Cable Radio and Television Act, and been able to prevent himself and his daughter from contravening the regulations. Instead, he chose to own the shares illegally for more than a decade, as did his daughter,” the commission said.
Hsieh Hsin-lung and Hsieh Pei-yin had been given a chance to explain their actions, it said.
As both had reduced their indirect shareholding in SD TV to 0.63 percent by April 8, the NCC ruled that the cable system be fined just NT$1.6 million for receiving invested funds from people having familial relationships with politicians.
In related news, the commission said that it would allow Eastern Broadcasting Co to keep its promise to increase program production funds by NT$900 million over a six-year period, a promise that it made to secure the NCC’s approval of an ownership change in 2018.
The commission found that the network had only increase the program production fund by NT$15 million since then, but spokesperson Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said that the network has kept its promise to spend NT$42 million per year to produce 4K-resolution programs.
“The condition that the commission had agreed upon was that the network should increase its program funds by NT$900 million by Dec. 31, 2023, which does not include NT$42 million that it committed to spend annually to produce 4K-resolution programs,” NCC specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said.
Should the network fail to keep its promise, the commission can abolish the entire or part of its ruling on the case, Chen said.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant