Life

MOC to overhaul Taiwan’s public media management

• Publication Date：07/12/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  June Tsai

A special task force will guide reform of the Taiwan Broadcasting System, and the process for selecting a new TBS board of directors will start over, with greater transparency, ROC Culture Minister Lung Ying-tai said July 11.

The Ministry of Culture will also redouble its efforts to amend the outdated Public Television Act in the next legislative session, she said.

Lung made the remarks after two review committee meetings June 29 and July 11 failed to produce the fifth board of directors of TBS, the umbrella organization for the publicly funded TV networks Public Television Service, Hakka TV, Indigenous TV, Chinese Television System and Taiwan Macroview TV.

Current board members have been in office for more than 19 months past the end of their three-year terms because of legal disputes among directors affiliated with different political parties. The review committee, composed of representatives of major parties according to the proportion of their seats in the Legislature, in the June meeting called on nominees to submit statements on their visions for public TV.

Ahead of the July meeting, however, 10 of the 19 candidates withdrew in protest against procedural flaws and unfair treatment. As according to law the board is composed of 17 to 21 members, this action left an insufficient number of nominees and the selection process could not be completed.

The Executive Yuan thus needs to come up with a new list of candidates, which the MOC will make public to prevent suspicion of political interference, in accordance with suggestions from the review committee, Lung said.

Moreover, when the committee meets to select the board members its deliberations will be shown in a live webcast. A room with a real-time broadcast of the meeting will also be set aside for public attendance.

In amending the Public Television Act, special attention will be given to clearly defining the selection and responsibilities of the board of directors, Lung added. (THN)