NCC's Want Want ruling is bad news for Taiwan

The National Communications Commission has allowed a media monopoly to form in its Want Want Group ruling, writes Yeh Yi-jin

Taipei Times
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

By Yeh Yi-jin

Before approving Want Want Group's managerial takeover of China Television Co (CTV) and CTiTV, the National Communications Commission (NCC) held hearings amid great fanfare, during which experts and academics almost unanimously opposed Want Want's plans. Their concerns focused on the risk that the group could monopolize domestic media. Yet the NCC approved the proposal, disregarding the potential ramifications of a monopoly spanning newspapers, cable and terrestrial TV.

The NCC's move threatens to put media under the control of politicians, special interest groups and corporations and undermine its supervisory role of the fourth estate.

The NCC should not have approved this deal spanning different media.

Although provisions were imposed on the takeover ostensibly to prevent a media monopoly from forming, upon closer examination, these conditions place no legal constraints on CTV and CTiTV. In fact, they could already have been met and the NCC would not know because it does not have the power to investigate whether this is the case.

At the same time, there are numerous ways to get around the rules, so there is no way that the NCC could stop a media monopoly.

A proposal that should never have been allowed has been approved by the NCC in a roundabout way.

Furthermore, the Want Want Group made wide use of its print media outlets to accuse the NCC of abusing its authority for tacking conditions onto the approval and then used its cable and terrestrial TV stations to broadcast reports that gave the impression that the NCC had dealt with CTV and CTiTV unfairly.

The NCC ended up making concessions by changing some of the conditions it set for CTV and CTiTV to suggestions rather than criteria.

Media outlets can run editorials and print news reports and ads to defend themselves when their own interests are at stake, but when media outlets become a tool for huge corporations trying to protect their interests the result is nothing short of scandalous.

From now on, we will find that CTiTV, CTV and the China Times will join forces in lashing out at anything that runs counter to the interests of the Want Want Group. This article may soon elicit criticism from these media outlets as well.

Since Taiwan is a diverse democracy, a media monopoly runs counter to public interests. The NCC should not have compromised on its conditions.

Yeh Yi-jin is a Democratic Progressive Party legislator.

TRANSLATED BY TED YANG

Date Posted: 6/10/2009