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NCC chair to give
briefing on media merger principles
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
National Communication Commission (NCC) Chairperson Su Herng (ĬôÁ) will brief
lawmakers at the legislature¡¦s Transportation Committee today on the principles
governing the commission¡¦s review of media mergers, with a special focus on the
bid by Want Want Broadband to acquire cable TV services owned by multiple
service operator China Network Service (CNS).
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (¸©y¬z), one of the
committee¡¦s two conveners of the committee, told the Taipei Times that the
committee had officially invited Want Want Group Chairman Tsai Eng-meng (½²l©ú) to
attend the meeting.
Yeh said many were concerned that the nation¡¦s media outlets were owned by a
handful of conglomerates.
She said Want Want-China Times Group, which already owns TV stations and
newspapers, plans to branch out to the cable TV stations.
The CNS deal would enable the group to determine which channels were included in
the cable TV service, which would directly affect viewers¡¦ interests, Yeh said.
¡§We want to give Mr Tsai the opportunity to speak and see if he can alleviate
people¡¦s concerns,¡¨ she added.
Yeh said the fact that two of the four commissioners scheduled to review the
merger had indicated their intention to resign had exacerbated the controversy.
¡§Among the seven commissioners, three withdrew from the case because they were
publicly humiliated by the Want Want Group in its acquisition of the China Times
Group in 2008,¡¨ she said. ¡§The NCC explained that the final ruling [on the CNS
deal] would still be valid even if it was made by four commissioners ... Now two
of the remaining four have said they want to resign.¡¨
The commission last week said it would hold another public hearing early next
month on the CNS bid, because it wanted to hear more opinions from different
parties.
The following day, Want Want China Broadband issued a statement saying that Tsai
would agree to attend the public hearing, which the company characterized as a
¡§public trial¡¨ and a ¡§struggle session¡¨ similar to those held during the
Cultural Revolution in China.
That statement said Tsai would attend on the condition that the commission ruled
on the case within two weeks of the hearing.
¡§Since last year, we have quickly and sincerely replied all of NCC¡¦s questions
on the concentration of media ownership, as well as other irrelevant matters
[such as a report in the Washington Post that took Mr Tsai¡¦s comments out of
context],¡¨ the statement said. ¡§We even used statistics to demonstrate that most
of the calculations of media concentration are wrong, including those using the
Hirfindahl index from the US or the method from the German Commission on
Concentration in the Media. Excessive media concentration is not an issue in
Taiwan, nor is there any media outlet that enjoys a monopoly here.¡¨
Meanwhile, lawmakers at the legislature¡¦s Internal Administration Committee also
plan to question officials from the Mainland Affairs Council, the Ministry of
Interior and the NCC today on how the government manages the content of
advertisements from China.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (§õ«TÍâ) said he suspected the Fujian Provincial
Government might have paid China Times to provide detailed coverage of the visit
of Fujian Province Governor Su Shulin (Ĭ¾ðªL) last month, when Su urged Taiwan to
work with China on the joint development of the Pingtan Comprehensive
Experimental Zone.
He said the DPP caucus would investigate the matter.
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