Taiwan's Executive Yuan will not countersign the Broadcasting and Television Act amendment passed by the Legislative Yuan, bringing to eight the number of third-reading bills the cabinet has declined to sign since late last year. Cabinet spokesperson Lee Hui-chih said in a written statement that the amendment's provisions on party, government and military holdings, and on who can be penalised under them, closely resemble two laws Premier Cho Jung-tai has already refused to countersign, CNA reported.
Those two are the Satellite Broadcasting Act and the Cable Radio and Television Act. Restrictions on party, government and military investment in media, and the supervision attached to them, have to be regulated consistently to satisfy the constitutional principle of equality, Lee said. Withholding signature is intended to head off enforcement disputes, and questions of constitutionality, that would arise once the text was promulgated.
The refusal continues an open dispute between the cabinet and the legislature. Cho and Legislative Yuan Speaker 
Han Kuo-yu have been exchanging criticism publicly over the practice, Liberty Times reported, and the Broadcasting and Television Act follows the Act on Growth and Future Accounts for Children and Youth, passed by the Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party majority, which the cabinet also refused to sign.
The other bills left unsigned cover the allocation of government revenues and expenditures, military dependants' village redevelopment, political party assets, the Legislative Yuan's own organisation, and the two broadcasting statutes. Where the Executive Yuan previously answered bills it considered unlawful, unconstitutional or unworkable by seeking reconsideration, constitutional interpretation or an injunction, all eight of these have instead been met with non-countersignature.
The power itself rests on Article 37 of the constitution, under which the president promulgates laws and issues orders subject to the countersignature of the premier, or of the premier together with the relevant ministers.
Figures referenced: Han Kuo-yu. — JudgeMarket.
