The future of public service broadcasting in Taiwan is being seriously threatened, according to the head of the country’s public television broadcaster, PTS. Sylvia Feng, President of the PTS Foundation, said that Taiwan’s new government was holding back its half-yearly funding amounting to US$15 million, as well as a large budget appropriation that had previously been approved for digitalisation.
She told the Public Broadcasting International (PBI) conference being held in Arles, France, that since a change of government earlier in the year, there had been moves to undermine the independence of the public broadcaster. They are threatening to take over public TV, they are threatening to replace the board of directors, and they are threatening to change the whole management team, she said, adding that “We have been proud of the fact that Taiwan has the most independent public broadcasting system of anywhere in the Chinese-speaking world, but now that is under threat.”
Ms Feng said the government wanted to go back to the old days of controlling public broadcasting which would be a tragedy for the country as there would no longer be the checks and balances that currently exist. The new President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, in his inauguration speech promised to protect the independence of media in Taiwan, but in practice that hasn’t happened, she added.
(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)
