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Want Want chairman to dodge NCC
meeting
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Former China Times opinion editor
Tsai Chi-ta, right, criticizes Want Want China Times Group at a forum on freedom
of speech in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Despite an official invitation from the
National Communications Commission (NCC), Want Want China Broadband said this
weekend that the chairman of its parent firm, Want Want China Times Group, Tsai
Eng-meng (½²l©ú), will not attend today¡¦s public hearing because of concerns that
his presence would ¡§blur the focus¡¨ of the company¡¦s bid for the 11 cable TV
channels owned by China Network Service (CNS).
The NCC decided last month to hold another public hearing over Want Want¡¦s bid
for CNS following one administrative and one public hearing in 2011.
While Tsai was invited to attend today¡¦s hearing, Want Want China Broadband
issued a statement he would only participate if the NCC promised to rule on the
proposed acquisition within two weeks of the start of the process.
Tsai¡¦s special assistant, Chao Yu-pei (»¯¨|°ö), said Tsai had been advised by his
staff not to attend because the commission had not yet responded positively to
the company¡¦s request.
Chao added that as Tsai is merely a shareholder in the deal, any questions
directed at him would be largely irrelevant to the hearing itself. Chao said he
would represent Tsai at the hearing along with Tsai¡¦s son, Tsai Shao-chung
(½²²Ð¤¤).
Huang Kuo-chang (¶À°ê©÷), an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica who is
part of a group of academics opposed to the deal, said they would request that
the NCC hold a further administrative hearing and that Tsai should be compelled
to attend.
¡§When lawmakers in the UK -investigated the News of the World phone hacking
scandal, both Rupert Murdoch and his son attended the hearing and answered
questions from the lawmakers,¡¨ Huang said.
¡§People have questioned if Tsai [Eng-meng] is qualified to run a media company
after his comments to the Washington Post [in an interview in January] as well
as other controversies. He wants the commission to quickly rule on the case, yet
he did not attend the public hearing to clarify those doubts. His motivation and
his actions were very questionable,¡¨ Huang said.
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