Radio Taiwan International (RTI) is operated by the Central Broadcasting System (CBS), a government-owned radio station that broadcasts in 13 languages around the world. CBS was founded in 1928 as the voice of the Kuomintang (KMT) government, which was based in Nanking, mainland China. Following the civil war between the KMT and the Communist Party of China at the end of World War II, the KMT retreated to Taiwan, taking CBS with it. Over the past 60 years or so, CBS has operated under various names. It was renamed Radio Taiwan International in 1996.
Media assets
Radio: Radio Taiwan International
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State Funded and State Managed (ISFM)
Ownership and governance
The station was established by the Radio Taiwan International Establishment Act. It was originally overseen by the Government Information Office, a government agency that was formally disbanded in 2012, with its functions taken over by other ministries. Today, RTI is owned by the government and is officially accountable to the Ministry of Culture.
RTI is governed by a board of 11 to 15 members and a supervisory board of three to five members, all appointed by the government. Half of them are government representatives. The Supervisory Board has the sole responsibility of overseeing the financial performance of RTI.
Source of funding and budget
RTI is largely funded by the government through a subsidy allocation. In recent years, in the face of financial constraints, RTI has begun to rent its airtime, which sometimes affects its editorial coverage (because it rents airspace to program producers without having any say in what they broadcast). RTI’s 2019 budget was nearly TWD 590m (US$ 20m). More than 76% of the budget came from the government, according to the broadcaster’s most recent annual report.
Editorial independence
Although RTI is sometimes criticized for not being neutral, it generally enjoys a high degree of editorial independence. No major incidents or hard evidence of RTI’s lack of editorial independence or overt government interference in its editorial affairs were identified during the latest round of research for this report.
September 2024