An Empty Chair for PTS
Earlier this month, parliamentary bickering in Taiwan over the management of the country’s top public broadcaster reached a head. The standoff, mirroring deadlocks elsewhere in national politics, has clear consequences for public service media.
On the morning of May 7, Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝), chair of Taiwan’s Public Television Service (公共電視台), founded in 1998 with a legal mandate for independence from political interference, arrived at the country’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, to field questions from lawmakers about the budget and operations of the Culture Ministry, which disburses public funding to PTS and its six channels, including Taiwan Plus, the country’s English-language international broadcaster. But before he had a chance to speak, Hu was urged away by Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) of the opposition Kuomintang party, who declared that amendments to the Public Television Act (公共電視法) — passed earlier this year and removing a provision that had allowed board terms to be extended — had stripped Hu of his mandate, making him a “former” chair with no right to appear. Hu complied, saying he respected the legislature’s decision, but called the situation regrettable.
At the center of the dispute is a conflict between two laws. The KMT says the amended Public Television Act ends Hu’s mandate. Culture Minister Li Yuan (李遠), a novelist and screenwriter who had served in the post since 2024, argues the Foundations Act (財團法人法) keeps him in place until a successor board is confirmed — and that the opposition had expelled the board chair while also preventing a new board from being seated. Eight members of a legislative review committee resigned before a second candidate review could proceed, collapsing the process.
Without a functioning board, Hu warned, PTS cannot execute major work plans, enter into financial agreements, or approve core policy functions. In a Facebook post following the hearing, Li, the culture minister, accused the opposition of seeking to paralyze the broadcaster entirely — a charge the KMT disputes — arguing that in Taiwan’s current environment, PTS is critical to fair news reporting, quality programming, and national security. “Making the public broadcaster inoperable is their true objective,” Li wrote.
