Taiwan’s largest telecom company has successfully moved an independent Chinese station onto its new satellite, completing the final chapter in a months-long public relations battle that involved the Taiwanese government and U.S. Congress.
The New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) announced that its Asia Pacific transmission in Taiwan has been successfully switched to Taiwan’s new Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) ST-2 satellite on Aug. 1.
CHT initially refused to renew NTD AP’s contract earlier this year, saying its new satellite did not have enough bandwidth. But NTD AP and many of its backers said the refusal was not about bandwidth, but about the wishes of the Chinese communist regime, which considers NTD’s uncensored news programs a thorn in its side, and has interfered with NTD’s broadcasting for a long time. The regime was thought to have leverage over CHT because of the latter’s investments in China and future business opportunities in the market.
After months of debates by the Taiwanese government, and an outpouring of thousands of supportive letters from Taiwanese citizens, as well as the voices of a U.S. congressman and a vice president of the European Parliament weighing in, NTD AP secured its satellite contract renewal with Chunghwa at the end of June.
Lai Chung-chiang, a convener of the Cross-Strait Agreement Watch Alliance said this is not just a victory for NTD AP, it also “shows Taiwan’s continued commitment to support freedom of the press.”
Yen Chueh-an, a law professor at Taiwan National University and a member of Taiwan Democracy Watch, said: “This is a characteristic of Taiwan’s democratic society, which allows this issue to be fully discussed and exposed. Officials from both the ruling party and the opposition party have all voiced their concern. Eventually with the multi-front cooperation, a good solution was finally achieved.”
NTD said the case has generated international attention, and the station has received support from both local and international lawmakers and media freedom advocates during the past few months.
