TAIPEI: The "National Communications Commission" (NCC) yesterday delayed a decision on a controversial media company - Next Media and its application to operate television channels in Taiwan.

Next Media in mid-August submitted an application to run five TV channels - news, general information, movie, entertainment and sports.

But the company's application has raised concerns after it became the target of vehement protests last week from parents, educators and others for providing easy-to-access animated video clips of news events, including sexual harassment and violent crimes.

Next Media's website started an animated news service in mid-November, enabling readers of its affiliated Apple Daily newspaper to access the obscene motion graphic news by simply scanning the bar code on the paper with a cell phone.

Next Media has since canceled the animated news section after being fined by the Taipei City Government, which ordered schools and public libraries to cancel subscriptions of the paper.

Now, the media group's TV projects, TV channels for news and general information in particular, are expected to come under more scrutiny.

The NCC announced yesterday it is requiring the media corporation to present more details of its operational plans.

As a matter of fact, NCC spokesman Chen Cheng-chang revealed last week that Next Media may not get approval for running TV news and general information channels, although it is highly likely that the projects for movie, entertainment and sports channels might be approved by the commission.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/03/2009 page2)