This content is over 16 years old. It may be obsolete and may not reflect the current opinion of the author.

From their press release, Public Television System, Taiwan’s only public television service, announced that they are running out of money and will unable to pay December salaries to their employees. This is mostly due to the government budget last year that suppose to donate to PTS foundation is being frozen for unacceptable eleven months.

The KMT lawmakers who block the money (I am not sure whether DDP, the other party, is involved or not) saying that they are concerned the “liberal bias” of PTS programming and the “lack of oversight” from “the people” over the use of the founding. They also do that out of fear (or punishment?) for PTS’s alleged bias to the previous DDP administration.

From my POV, this is just another sample that government, both executive branch and legislation branch, fighting over for the “control” of supposed public television service. PTS has grown from one small channel which barely make their own programs to a large television group called TBS, owning multiple channels and even operating a citizen journalism website. While I am happy that public television could grown to the size today that can actually have their voice heard by the people, this inevitably draw the attention of politicians and the government, who already owns, or influenced heavily, the commercial televisions, especially news networks. This, really worries me.

It’s public television, it’s for the people. It’s suppose to be “liberal”, to talk more about the enviroment, social justice, public policies which favors few but not many, to counter commercial and government run medium. Public Television Act was specially crafted to avoid government involvement of their operation while still able to get money from it. Unfortunately, at the end of day, the lawmakers would simply block the money, show them “who’s the boss.”

Come on, People are the boss. If I win the lottary, I would donate most of the money to PTS. But before I do, PTS would just have to hanging there.