Rarely Seen, NCC Overruled！President Tsai Doesn't Seem Surprised
United Daily News Commentary, May 11, 2023
The decision by the National Communications Commission (NCC) to shut down CtiTV News was revoked on May 10 by the Taipei High Administrative Court. On May 11, Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang slapped the NCC in the face again, saying that the ruling made by the Administrative Court is "really uncommon."
The NCC has already lost 10 consecutive lawsuits against CtiTV News, with the most high-profile litigation being the one in which CtiTV was not allowed to renew its license in 2020. When asked about the legal case in the Legislative Yuan today, Minister Tsai initially refused to answer on the grounds that the license revocation by the NCC was not a responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. It was only after the convening legislator in committee declared that government officials have no right to refuse questions from legislators that he gave an answer. Minister Tsai’s answer was a slap in the face to the NCC, saying that the Administrative Court usually ruled in favor of the government in the past, and the court's decision to revoke the NCC's decision was uncommon.
There are two possible reasons for this. First, the Administrative Court has been reduced to a protectorate of the Executive Yuan, or alternatively, there is a very solid legal basis for the Executive Yuan's decision. The former is not easy to prove, while it is not difficult to make an objective assessment of the latter.
The NCC's successive defeats in litigation are a result of the courts' reluctance to act as a guardian of the Executive Yuan, as well as of judicial certification of the abuse of power of the NCC.
According to KMT Legislator Tseng Ming-chung, based on his experience as chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), it is "exceedingly rare to ever see a judge rule against the executive branch," not to mention the fact that the NCC has continuously been ruled against. In response to a question from Tseng Ming-chung yesterday, Secretary-General Lin Hui-huang of the Judicial Yuan also stated that if the sanctions imposed by a government agency are often revoked, the agency should review its actions internally.
As the competent authority for the relevant laws, regulations, and businesses, it is only natural that the executive branch imposes sanctions in accordance with the law; any sanctions involving people's property and rights and obligations should be carefully deliberated. However, the NCC has already lost 10 consecutive lawsuits against CtiTV. This should not be seen as an accidental dispute over the application of the law, but a habitual abuse of power and a deliberate attempt by the NCC to prosecute political dissidents!
Both Minister Tsai and Secretary-General Lin have phrased it very euphemistically. But the NCC is clearly not worthy of being an independent body, and Chairman Chen Yaw-Shyang of the NCC is completely unfit for the position of chairperson.
In fact, in the Administrative Court’s ruling, it was specifically pointed out that the NCC is a consensus-based independent body, and that the court should adopt a lower level of scrutiny and give considerable respect to the NCC, but it does not mean that the NCC's decisions can be completely excluded from judicial scrutiny. The court should still examine whether the decisions made by the NCC are based on incomplete information and whether the proper procedures have been followed, to ensure that the NCC is governing in accordance with the law.
In other words, the court held that the NCC's decision should have been given considerable respect, but since the NCC could not administer the law fairly, the judiciary had to intervene.
While the court had no way of asking who allowed an independent body such as the NCC to defy the rule of law and who allowed the NCC to abuse its power, the answer is already clear from the leaked documents of the Office of the President and the leaked audio files of the controversial Mirror TV license application case. This decision is also a warning to the political hacks behind the NCC and Chairman Chen.
But is it true that this kind of situation is not common? If you have the chance to ask Madame President, then you will know that this kind of situation is really not unusual!