The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it has invited Mirror TV’s management to a meeting next month to answer questions about its plan to set up a cable news channel.
Mirror Media submitted an application to set up a Mirror TV news channel in December 2019, but the commission did not begin reviewing the application until January this year.
NCC commissioners yesterday resumed the review after the news channel in May submitted a new list of board directors and other supplementary materials. They ruled that the review be continued, and invited Mirror TV’s management to a meeting at the NCC on Dec. 1 to answer questions from commissioners.
“We hope to communicate directly with the news channel’s management about our concerns over its shareholding structure, as well as its business plan, once it is allowed to broadcast on cable,” NCC Chief Secretary Chen Chung-shu (陳崇樹) said.
NCC Department of Broadcasting and Content specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said that none of the directors serving on the board holds any share in the news channel, which is very different from other TV networks in Taiwan.
Commissioners want Mirror TV’s management to explain how the news channel would operate having zero-shareholding board directors and shareholders, Chen Shu-ming said.
Commissioners would also inquire about the source of the channel’s funding, given its pledge to dedicate resources to the production of international news and investigative reports, he said.
Public records showed that the channel’s chairman is former Ta Chong Bank chairman Chen Chien-ping (陳建平). The other five board directors are Taiwanese film and television director Yang Ya-che (楊雅?;), former Paper Windmill Cultural Foundation CEO Lee Yung-feng (李永豐), former Formosa News political news director Lu Yu-lin (盧宥伶) and former Accton Technology chairman Huang An-jie (黃安捷). Its supervisor is Liu Chih-peng (劉志鵬).
In other news, Eastern Broadcasting Co’s (EBC) management is to meet with NCC commissioners next week to explain why it needs more time to fulfill its pledges, which it made in 2018 to secure approval for its ownership change.
EBC’s current owner had made 14 pledges, but later said it was having difficulty meeting two of them, NCC officials said.
One was increasing the budget by NT$900 million (US$32.36 million) over six years to fund the production of international news, children’s programs, entertainment shows, TV series and TV movies on the network’s channels.
The network asked to extend the deadline for this pledge from 2023 to 2025, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted its production schedule, leaving it with only five years to fulfill the commitment, the commission said.
The other pledge was to spend NT$42 million annually from 2018 to this year to produce 4K high-definition programs, it said.
EBC asked for an extension of the deadline to next year, as its financial statement this year would not be audited by accountants until March next year, it said.
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
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS