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Our partner station NTD Asia Pacific will finalize its contract with Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom before the end of this month. It will continue broadcasting in the region. Both parties reached a written agreement on Wednesday, for the contract signing to happen on June 29th. The decision has been widely welcomed by people concerned about press freedom.

On Wednesday, our partner station in Taiwan, NTD Asia Pacific, announced the final step in securing its broadcasting future in the region. It reached a written agreement with Chunghwa Telecom to broadcast on its ST-2 Satellite, starting in August.

Chunghwa had previously rejected renewing the contract, saying the newly launched satellite did not have sufficient bandwidth for the station. After two months of negotiations, and Taiwan's government stepping in, Chunghwa agreed to continue servicing NTD AP.

[Theresa Chu, NTD AP Spokeswoman]:
"After the facilitation by both major political parties, we have found that there is indeed enough bandwidth for the satellite. We have now confirmed, the contract signing will be completed on June 29th."

The decision has been widely welcomed.

[Rupert Hammond-Chambers, President US-Taiwan Business Council]:
"I think the Taiwan government played a conservative role in moving forward, or encouraging Chunghwa Telecom to do the right thing."

NTD AP has been using Chunghwa's ST-1 satellite to broadcast into the region, including Mainland China, since 2007. Many suspected that Chunghwa's initial decision against renewing the contract was because of pressure from the Chinese regime. NTD's programming includes uncensored information on topics like human rights and democracy.

Columnist Professor Zhang Tianliang says Chunghwa's turnaround is significant for the Chinese public.