Communications experts yesterday urged the legislature to expedite approval of the Executive Yuan’s nominees to the National Communications Commission (NCC), saying the agency’s prolonged leadership vacuum has undermined the public interest.
The experts were commenting at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee prior to the official review of nominees.
The Executive Yuan nominated former Taipei Department of Legal Affairs commissioner Yuan Hsiu-hui (袁秀慧) as NCC chairwoman and National Sun Yat-sen University Institute of Marketing Communication professor Shaw Ping (蕭蘋) as vice chairwoman. The other nominees are Wang Yi-hui (王怡惠), Yu Chia-mu (游家牧), Chang Chun-yen (張春炎), Steve Chang (張克豪) and Chen Chun-mu (陳春木).
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The communications authority is operating without any commissioners after the terms of the three remaining commissioners expired on July 31.
Hung Pu-chao (洪浦釗), an assistant professor at the University of Taipei’s Center for General Education, said that while the legislature can scrutinize the nominees, the stalled review process has affected radio-frequency equipment import approvals, as well as the approval and renewal of broadcasting licenses.
The ruling and opposition parties should swiftly get the review process back on track, Hung said.
Lin Cheng-yu (林承宇), a professor in Shih Hsin University’s Department of Radio, Television and Film, said that more than 700 cases are awaiting NCC rulings, including proposed changes to the business plans and shareholding structures of television news channels.
“The consequences of leaving the communications oversight agency dysfunctional are far greater than finding perfect candidates for the positions,” he said.
Once the commissioners are approved, they should work with the Ministry of Digital Affairs to promote a paid news revenue-sharing system, because content produced by news media is used by large online platforms free of charge, Lin said.
Chang Kun-sheng (張錕盛), an adjunct lecturer in Soochow University’s Department of Law, said that lawmakers should focus on the qualifications of nominees and avoid reviewing communications professionals through political lenses.
The NCC should rule independently based on professionalism without any political interference, and the principle should apply to controversial cases involving CTi News and Mirror News, he said.
CTi News’ broadcasting license was not renewed after the NCC cited repeated rule violations and failures in internal discipline and control, while management issues were reported at Mirror News after it obtained a broadcasting license in 2022.
The review of the two cases sparked controversies due to a lack of transparency, National Taiwan Normal University adjunct assistant professor Lin Kuan-yu (林寬裕) said.
While Taiwan has freedom of speech, media diversity has yet to be fully established, he said.
Shih Hsin University professor Wen Wei-chun (溫偉群) said the public does not trust the NCC, particularly when it comes to its criteria for penalizing news channels.
Some were told to improve their operations, while others were fined or had their licenses revoked, he said.
The commission should not intervene in the operation of news media simply because they gave more exposure to certain politicians, Wen said.
Shih Hsin University communications professor Jack Yu (游梓翔) said that the nominees should clearly state where they stand on the CTi News case and on an incident in which former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth Department director Wei Chun-yu (韋淳祐) was visited by police seeking to verify information about a video that allegedly used artificial intelligence to mimic the voice of President William Lai (賴清德) to criticize the government’s handling of a cooking oil safety scandal.
Yuan Ze University information management professor Chou Yun-tsai (周韻采) said that all the nominees failed to indicate their positions on issues handled by the NCC, including radio spectrum policy, low Earth orbit satellites, international submarine communications cables and revenue sharing with digital platforms.
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