Update: This article, from the Epoch Times, is somewhat misleading: it appears that RTI is not actually being silenced; rather, they’re merely removing sites that are retired and redundant. See post comments for more info.
(Source: Epoch Times)
Media freedom in Taiwan is again under attack by political forces from mainland China, resulting in a sudden decision by Radio Taiwan International (RTI) to dismantle two of its substations. Among RTI’s customers who will lose their contracts are Sound of Hope Radio and Radio Free Asia, which have played an important role in broadcasting uncensored news to the mainland.
Earlier this month, RTI’s largest customer, Sound of Hope Radio (SOH), received a notice that the Huwei substation in Yunlin County will be dismantled beginning June 1. The eight radio antennas pointing towards China will be removed ahead of schedule, and the broadcasting business will also stop at the end of May.
Tainan, another RTI substation in Tianma, will also be dismantled in a few months’ time, according to an insider.
[…]According to insider information, RTI high-level executives visited mainland China at the end of February. Soon after, RTI announced its intention to take down the two substations.
Following the removal of the substations, RTI will terminate all its rebroadcasting customers and also stop its own shortwave broadcasting, and develop a mobile platform and Internet broadcasting instead, the insider said.
Zeng (Allen) Yong, President of SOH, told The Epoch Times he had rushed to Taiwan as he was very concerned about RTI’s move to terminate its main customers in the name of consolidating substations and eventually ending shortwave broadcasting into China–a matter of great concern to the Communist Party, which censors media in the mainland.[…]
They do have political affiliation. The DPP. I just called a friend who works in the RTI distribution department and she said almost all the information in the piece was false. These two sites were slated to be taken off line years ago. She was telling me in the case of Huwei site, the costs to keep in going were going up and up all the time. The money spent to keep it on air for the past 10 years was so much that they could have built a new relay. This is just like a story that ran about two years ago when Epoch Times ran a story about how Chunghuw Telecom was bending to pressure from China. What happened was Chunghuw Telecom got a new satellite for digital transmissions and there was not enough space on it for New Tang Dynasty. Chunghuw also help New Tang Dynasty find a new satellite from Thaicom in Thailand. The other reason why Chunghuw wanted to do away with NTD was because of thousands of dollars of unpaid bills. Did Epoch mention any of this no. In the last 20 mins I called Epoch Times head office when I told them what the problem was they hung up. When I call right back they didn’t answer. I got the same reaction from their offices in San Fran, N. York and London. This is typical of them. Radio France and other broadcasters that use Taiwan as a relay moved there broadcasts to other sites in Taiwan ages ago because of the amount of technical problems at these two stations.
Epoch Times is leaving vital information out and has created much of the information in it’s story. First Epoch Time is funded by Falun Gone just as New Tang Dynasty Television. While it’s true that the Huwei station is being taken off line. There is a good reason. First: This site is only of the older ones in Taiwan and has many technical issues. Second: These antenna and this site is and was used for targeting South East Asia. Never China. Third: The other site they mention is in the same position as the Huwei site. And broadcasts from these two relays will be moved to the more moden stations. Fourth: RTI managers have met with CRI managers many times before. Fifth: The meeting that took place was at a meeting of Asia broadcasters. Other broadcasters were there. Sixth: These two sites were slated to be cut years ago. Epoch Times is very pro Democratic Progressive Party or PAN GREENS. Ever since Ma Ying Jeou was elected as President of Taiwan Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty Television have been on a all out attack against the Kuomintang or PAN BLUES. This story is nothing more than political propaganda against the Ma government. It increased when the former DPP and President Chen Shibien was sentenced to 20 years in prison over corruption. The DPP and Falun Gong keep saying these charges are all fake. This is despite the fake that the US Government has seized property with 30 million USD, The swiss Government returned to Taiwan over 20 million in Swiss Bank accounts. Chen’s children who fled Taiwan have an arrest warrant against them for making a transfer of Taiwan state funds to Singapore worth 2 million.
I’ve seen other articles from Epoch Times in the past; this one, last past ones, is written like an Op Ed piece. The ET has a very strong slant either supporting or condemning a piece of news. I took note of this one only because they mention two sites being dismantled. Thanks for your take–I wondered if they had a political affiliation.