The probe, the first using the controversial powers, would investigate allegations that the government influenced the NCC to approve Mirror Media’s application to establish Mirror TV. The task force was authorized to start its investigation yesterday and continue until Dec. 31, a deadline that can be extended if task force members consent, the motion says. Established in March, the Transportation Committee’s investigative task force said its mandate has ended, effective immediately, adding that it would turn over all its findings. The committee’s task force said that the NCC was uncooperative throughout the investigation and had used technicalities to delay the process. The government’s establishing three separate committees to investigate one media company was unprecedented and harms journalistic liberties, the channel said, referring to the committee formed in March, a task force that TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said he would establish and the current special cross-committee task force.
