It appears as if the National Communications Commission (NCC) has been added to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s armory in its battle to neuter the media and stifle criticism of the current administration’s shortcomings.
This became apparent after the NCC on Tuesday singled out SET TV’s political chat show Da Hua News (大話新聞, or “Talking Show”) for censure.
The commission’s failure to produce evidence of the show’s alleged transgressions speaks volumes for the professionalism of a body that was ruled “unconstitutional” by the Council of Grand Justices in 2006 and, despite cosmetic changes, still leaves major doubts hanging over its neutrality.
The NCC’s rebuke also comes just a month after Talking Show cut its weekend programs as part of a “cost-cutting” exercise. News of the cut came shortly after a raid on the home of the channel’s president by Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau officials.
Rumors that the show’s popular host, Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀), would be replaced or that the show might be dropped altogether — a strange move considering it is rated the nation’s most popular political talk show — had to be scotched by station officials at the company’s year-end party.
Add to this Wednesday’s NCC-proposed amendment to the Satellite Radio and Television Act (衛星廣播電視法) that would set stricter fact-checking regulations on such shows and see repeat offenders removed from the airwaves, and it could be interpreted as part of a concerted attack on one of the most vocal critics of government policy.
This seems even more the case when one considers that government-friendly political talk shows that present gossip and rumor as fact on a daily basis have not come in for similar criticism and treatment.
While the NCC may receive complaints from viewers unhappy with the subject or content discussed on any particular show, if the views presented on air are backed up with facts and figures then there should be no case to answer, regardless of the sensitivities of viewers.
The media’s right to broadcast opinions should be judged on whether what is said is based on fact, not on whether certain sections of the public disagree with it. This is at the heart of the NCC’s proposed amendment, but whether any law will be applied evenhandedly or just used to attack government critics remains to be seen.
Who would have imagined that when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) praised Singapore’s government during a visit in 2007 that, once back in power, he and his party would use the “rule of law” as a premise to replicate Singapore’s infamously sanitized, government-controlled news media?
But with the well-documented government interference in the affairs of the Central News Agency, Radio Taiwan International and Public Television Services as evidence, and now the pressure being ratcheted up on Talking Show, things certainly seem to be heading in that direction.
While he was in Singapore, Ma also said that Taiwan was different because it emphasized democracy. Ma should know that media freedom is vital to the survival of any democracy, especially one where a single party has a vice-like grip on all the instruments of state.
That is, unless his administration is intent on rolling back Taiwan’s democracy in the same way it is rolling back its media freedom.
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
RSS