In a country where democracy is still young, abuses to the freedom of speech and the freedom of media are natural and occur because the boundaries between information and abuse of power are very thin. In this way, as in many other countries, Taiwan also suffers from the constant break of politesse (just to say it smoothly) rules by the media.
What would be normal is that these abuses by the media are not controlled at all, and the National Communications Commission (NCC) just stands quietly looking at all of them. The worst part of it is when the NCC goes against the government by protecting Media groups. The case of TVBS (which is illegally fully owned by the Hong Kong-based Television Broadcasting Corp) and the refusal to probe charges of chicanery in the KMT’s NT$9-billion-plus sale of BCC and CTV to the China Times are well known.
In the last days, we saw the Court of Grande Justices considering that the nomination of the NCC members by the LY as unconstitutional, as the NCC does not act as an agency of the LY, but as an agency of the Cabinet. The articles that were deamed unconstitutional were added by the pan blue camp in the LY. What happened is that the opposition controls the NCC, and they appointed loyalists who seeked to undermine any government attempt to make justice prevail (the case of TVBS is a scandal).
Now after the highest Justice court declares something unconstitutional, something happens, except if you are in Taiwan. Ironically, the KMT and PFP confirmed that the remaining NCC commissioners are acting as their agents and are not representative of the public interest by ordering their “recommended” lawyers and academic experts to “resolutely remain at their posts.” NCC Chairman Su Yung-chin and the other eight pan-blue appointees shamelessly declared their obedience to their real masters in the KMT and PFP and their contempt for the Constitution by announcing their decision to hang on to their offices until December 31, 2008.
As anyone expects KMT to be back in power in 2008, we can all expect that these appointees will keep their jobs, after all their good work in prole of the blue alliance. But they forget that this is a controlling commisssion, and by so, they should be completelly independent from political views. If not, they undermine all the democracy in Taiwan, by a statement of side - the NCC proved very well in which bed they lay, and when KMT is back to power, one can assume they will be even more confortable.
For the sake of the “clean” image that Ma is transmiting, he himself should disband the NCC and put it in accordance to the Constitution. If he believes that the Constitution of Taiwan does not serve his interests, than he can addresss a change. By letting an unconstitutional member of the government stay in power, Ma is tarnishing himself and all the blue camp.
Hey, DPP should just go ahead and shut those media down. No guts, no glory. No need to wait for Ma to do it.
The constitutional ruling explicitly stated that the existing NCC members should stay in their jobs until the end of 2008 - so they are doing exactly what the CGJ has told them to do. So, there’s nothing to complain about, is there?
As for what Ma should do - he should tell his legislators to follow the ruling and update the NCC laws to make them constitutional. I assume he will probably do that.
The constitutional ruling explicitly stated that the existing NCC members should stay in their jobs until the end of 2008 - so they are doing exactly what the CGJ has told them to do. So, there’s nothing to complain about, is there?
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As for what Ma should do - he should tell his legislators to follow the ruling and update the NCC laws to make them constitutional. I assume he will probably do that.[/quote
The papers today say that he see no need to do so.
well, normally, the NCC members, once it was found that they where elected unconstitutionally, should resign from their posts. Sticking to them, just because the ruling says they can, shows they have no integrity, and are there for their own particular reasons.
It seems you’ve got a problem with the ruling rather than with the behaviour of the NCC members. When you’ve got a ruling from the highest possible level that there’s no need for them to resign, then it seems obvious to me that there’s no need for them to resign - and criticizing them for doing exactly what the CGJ tells them to do seems a bit bizarre to me.
The papers today say that he see no need to do so.[/quote]
Really? Got a link? If Ma’s telling his members to disregard a constitutional ruling then he’s being an idiot. Or perhaps just trying to truly earn the mantle of “Successor to Lien Chan”
Right, this would normally be expected.
But, at the same time, if there is no “constitutional” basis for their continuance in office, it seems fully reasonable to say that they will not be receiving any salary or other reimbursement from the national coffers. Is that correct???
It seems you’ve got a problem with the ruling rather than with the behaviour of the NCC members. When you’ve got a ruling from the highest possible level that there’s no need for them to resign, then it seems obvious to me that there’s no need for them to resign - and criticizing them for doing exactly what the CGJ tells them to do seems a bit bizarre to me.[/quote]
I don’t have a problem with the rulling, just the behaviour. The rulling that says that they can stay, even after rulling out the unconstituinality of their election, is a pure case of stupidity.
But them if you look around Taiwan, you’ll see that there is no post-facto law. You want to build a house, build it, no matter if ti breaks 300 rules. Then there will be a stupid thing telling you that you built the house breaking any possible and imaginable rule. But, as the house is built, and you allready live on it, they cannot tear it apart.
And, let us not forget that the first prince was caught not while he was buying or selling the stocks, but after that. So why is he being accused? Shouldn’t he be absolved using the same principle of “it’s illegal/uncosntitutional, but what is done is done”.
How can judges rule such a stupid and perverted law? Don’t they even realise that from now on, the modus operandis for all the comissions will be “elect whoever you want, and shit on whoever complains”?
I don’t understand - either you misttyped or you’re contradicting yourself. The ruling says they can work even though their selection was unconstitutional. So it’s the ruling that’s the problem.
I agree it’s a bit bizarre - but it’s also pretty obvious why they made the ruling like that: they wimped out. If they’d gone the whole hog and said “the selection process was unconstitutional AND SO the current committee is invalid, and nothing it has done is legal” then we would have:
- A slew of complaints/legal cases/claims for compensation by all companies affected by (now annulled) decisions of the NCC over the last few months.
- An empty NCC
- No way to elect a new NCC (until the legislature pulls its finger out - which is likely to be 2008 at the earliest)
The judges presumably didn’t want to put themselves in a position where they were responsible for making Taiwan’s media completely unregulated (as opposed to just effectively uncontrolled) for the next couple of years, so they took the easy option.
well… judges taking the easy option sounds like they meet in a golf course and decided like this.
F**k hell, what is up with this country? The highest Judicial court takes the easy way? Are they a bunch of kids without respect from themselves?
By the way, they could have rulled the selection unconstitutional but without retroactive effects. Then, they could have given the opportunity for the government to ellect new comissaires.
I’m am actually against both - the rulling is completelly absurd, but the position from the comissaires is even more absurd. But wait, this is the Republic of Absurd, no?
But still, getting back to the house analogy, this means that from now on, everyone can elect whatever they want, because the highest court will declare it unconstitutional, but as they will for sure take the easy way, they will also rule that no one should be dismissed and everything should stay the same. So, in the end, they just decided that the law is bad, but the ones who abused it are all innocent little children that can continue to abuse it for 2 more years. And you wonder why people are corrupt?