Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators yesterday set up a task force to investigate the National Communications Commission (NCC) and affiliated organizations under the Legislative Yuan’s new powers of inquiry.
The probe, the first using the controversial powers, would investigate allegations that the government influenced the NCC to approve Mirror Media’s application to establish Mirror TV.
A motion, jointly proposed by the legislature’s Transportation Committee and the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, called for establishing a task force that would begin an investigation if at least one-third of its members are present, adding that all resolutions must receive supporting votes from half of all attending members.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Issues cannot be voted on if there are only three attending members at a meeting, which can be conducted behind closed doors, the motion says.
The task force was authorized to start its investigation yesterday and continue until Dec. 31, a deadline that can be extended if task force members consent, the motion says.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the legislature should have been notified if a joint meeting of caucuses was to be held and that the legislature already has a task force to address the Mirror TV issue.
Having two committees investigate the same issue contravenes the law, it said.
Established in March, the Transportation Committee’s investigative task force said its mandate has ended, effective immediately, adding that it would turn over all its findings.
The committee’s task force said that the NCC was uncooperative throughout the investigation and had used technicalities to delay the process.
Mirror TV yesterday said that despite the passage of the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法), its legality is in question as it awaits a Constitutional Court review.
The government’s establishing three separate committees to investigate one media company was unprecedented and harms journalistic liberties, the channel said, referring to the committee formed in March, a task force that TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said he would establish and the current special cross-committee task force.
The company said that that it has provided statements and proof that its establishment was in full accordance with the law, adding that the legislators’ actions were regrettable.
Mirror TV has undergone the longest review in Taiwan’s history and was also the first to be targeted with 42 unequal addendums to its applications, it said.
Despite these challenges the company’s intent on providing media oversight has not changed, it added.
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