Culture Ministry Suddenly Calls Off Plan to Commission PTS for Int’l Channel

 Culture Ministry Suddenly Calls Off Plan to Commission PTS for Int’l Channel

Source: UDN

July 30, 2020

In a board meeting of Public Television Service (PTS) on July 27, Tsao Wen-chieh (曹文傑), PTS president, resigned in exchange for winning the approval of the board of directors to conduct a pilot plan for an international video programming platform, commissioned by the Culture Ministry. However, the Ministry suddenly issued a statement yesterday, announcing its decision to terminate the commission. However, the Ministry stated that the direction of its policy to build an international platform remained unchanged, adding that it would seek views from various circles in order to determine the best execution approach.

Culture Minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) pointed out that when the Ministry was still in the process of seeking budget funding for the pilot plan, various slurs against the government and criticisms of PTS came up after PTS accepted the Ministry’s commission. Lee went on to indicate that “PTS board members even believed that politics had intervened in PTS, and that the government planned to confiscate PTS.”

Lee stated that although PTS board of directors had granted approval to build an international video programming platform, the Ministry still decided to terminate the commission so as not to bring harm to PTS. “This is a decision the Ministry has no choice but to make in order to protect PTS,” Lee concluded.

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