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Minister defends
CtiTV ‘coaching’ Cabinet officials
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter
In defense of a workshop held with media executives to teach senior Cabinet
officials media interaction skills, Central Personnel Administration Minister Wu
Tai-cheng (吳泰成) yesterday said it was “perfectly justified.”
Wu made the remarks in response to criticism leveled by the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) at a workshop hosted by CtiTV (中天電視) on Friday where
deputy Cabinet officials were required by the Executive Yuan to attend and keep
secret the matters discussed.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported yesterday that the
deputy heads of the Financial Supervisory Commission, National Communication
Commission and Central Election Commission — the three agencies independent from
executive administration — were also present at the workshop.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said she was suspicious of the motivations
behind the event, saying she thought it had something to do with January’s
presidential and legislative elections, adding that the three regulatory
commissions should not have been asked to take part in the event.
“The independent agencies are not supposed to serve politics. The Executive Yuan
showed disrespect toward the agencies and its mindset was questionable,” she
said.
Kuan cast doubt on the Cabinet’s ability to explain government policy and
criticized the Executive Yuan for sending the officials to TV stations to learn
techniques and skills to present policy, and not to universities to learn the
value and vision needed to formulate policy.
It was also questionable that the media, whose duty is to oversee the
government, took the Executive Yuan up on that offer to teach officials “how to
deal with the press,” Kuan said.
In response, Wu said there was nothing wrong with the Executive Yuan
commissioning TV stations to hold the workshop, which was the 12th session in a
year, with previous sessions held by other TV stations, including Taiwan
Television (台視), China Television (中視), Chinese Television System (華視), Sanlih
E-Television (三立電視), Unique TV (非凡電視), ETTV (東森電視) and Public Television Service
(公共電視).
“The series of workshops was aimed at elevating the skills of senior officials
when responding to media inquiries and explaining the government’s policy, which
helps them better understand the nature of the press and interact with them
well. As a result, people will understand the government’s policy better,” Wu
said.
The attendance of officials with independent agencies at the workshop would not
obstruct those agencies’ independent operations, he added.
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