China Television (CTV) received a passing grade for its performance from 2016 to 2019, although it must lower its debt ratio to below 60 percent before its operating license expires in 2025 while not firing employees for adhering to its own broadcasting guidelines, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
It was CTV’s first performance review since the network’s license renewal application was approved in 2016, the commission said.
A terrestrial television license is valid for nine years, and the commission is authorized to evaluate a licenced network’s performance every three years.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The review of CTV’s performance from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2019, took nearly two years, as the network was repeatedly asked to provide additional information on plans to improve its financial situation, and enhance the quality of its news programs and political talk shows, the commission said.
NCC data showed that the network has registered capital of NT$1.5 billion (US$54.11 million), but its debt ratio never dropped below 80 percent in the three-year evaluation period, it said.
The passing grade was granted on two conditions, the NCC said.
As the commission next year is to evaluate the network’s performance from July 1 last year to June 30 next year, CTV should submit a detailed financial improvement plan before the evaluation period ends, it said.
Moreover, it must reduce its debt ratio from 80 percent to below 60 percent before its operating license expires on June 30, 2025, the commission said.
CTV’s management should create guidelines for its news production and provide key items from its contract with news department employees, which should be made terms of its contracts with such personnel, it said.
“Former CTV chairwoman Chiu Chia-yu (邱佳瑜) was found to have interfered in the operations of CTi News, which is part of the Want Want China Times Group,” the commission said. “As such, contracts must clearly state that CTV’s management must not hand down decisions unfavorable to employees if they exert rights or privileges stated in the guidelines.”
CTV is not being singled out by the requirement to incorporate broadcasting guidelines with its contracts with employees, said NCC Vice Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗), the commission’s spokesman.
The NCC last week imposed the same requirement on Sanlih E-Television’s iNews when it approved a request to move it to channel 48, Wong said.
The commission has not found evidence that CTV is under undue influence from large shareholders or third parties, he said.
CTV’s management must revise its broadcasting guidelines, provide the employment guidelines and submit the revised guidelines to the commission within six months after it is officially notified about the evaluation, the commission said.
The network should enforce the revised broadcasting guidelines, which must prevent its largest shareholder or others from coercing employees at the news department to cover stories in ways that contradict its code of journalistic ethics, the commission said.
CTV must also stipulate guidelines governing production and broadcast of political talk shows, it added.
In other news, the commission is to provide an additional NT$65 million to compensate 402 radio and television stations for losses incurred by broadcasting disease prevention information from the Central Epidemic Command Center.
Since last year, the commission has spent NT$99 million to subsidize broadcast media for airing disease prevention information, it said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS