Taiwan Legislator Proposes Slashing Culture Ministry's Media Budget

Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling has taken a strong stance against the Ministry of Culture's budget, proposing the complete elimination of its NT$47.38 million media and publicity (媒宣費) allocation for the 2025 fiscal year. This follows her earlier success in cutting over NT$100 million from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' similar budget.

Weng argues that the proposed media and publicity budget represents an excessive increase of 83.42% compared to the previous year. She points to the national debt, which is approaching NT$400 billion with special budgets included, and the significant increase in defense spending to meet U.S. demands as reasons for fiscal austerity. Weng also contends that the Ministry of Culture operated smoothly with a zero budget for media and publicity in 2024 and has faced criticism for its subsidy practices, suggesting a need to improve internal efficiency rather than expand external communication budgets.

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The Ministry of Culture's 114th fiscal year statutory budget for media and publicity was zero, yet it operated smoothly. It has repeatedly drawn negative international and public reviews due to excessive subsidies, and should review how to improve the ministry's work efficiency and truly foster excellent cultural development in our country.

Further scrutiny came from other legislators. KMT legislator Lo Chih-chiang noted a 31.47% increase in the ministry's media and publicity budget over the past five years, questioning the necessity of the current allocation, particularly for "global layout strategy promotion" and "international and cross-strait regional layout plans," which he believes may overlap and hinder effective resource allocation. KMT legislator Ko Chih-en, citing a legislative budget review report, also pointed to potential redundancies among the ministry's 13 media and publicity items, advocating for clearer distinctions and better coordination to ensure efficient use of national resources.

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The content of the 'global layout strategy promotion plan' and the 'international and cross-strait regional layout plan' are both aimed at promoting exchange and cooperation, and there is a risk of overlapping work content affecting the effective allocation of resources.