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New group takes aim at `vulgar' TV

A media-monitoring group which aims to clean up TV marked its launch yesterday by issuing a list of TV programs it says contain offensive images and language.

The group, Media-Watcher Alliance (閱聽人監督媒體聯盟), also called on TV viewers to monitor programs for unethical behavior and called on advertisers to pull their advertising from such programs.

The alliance which includes members from the Garden of Hope, the Society of Wilderness of Taiwan and the Fubon Charitable Foundation, is particularly concerned about TV shows that demean women or may have a bad influence on children.

"Many of us [female social groups] feel that many irresponsible TV programs, especially variety shows, have a negative influence on children and tarnish the image of women. The only way to stop such damage to society is for commercial entities to cancel their advertising during the time slots of unethical programs," said Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), the CEO of the Garden of Hope at a news conference yesterday.

The alliance asked the public to call (02) 2392-3181 to report unethical programs.

"Many viewers have complained about variety shows such as Taiwan Television Enterprise's Variety Flagship (綜藝旗艦) and the quality of such shows must be improved," said Chiu Su-mei (邱素玫), a board member of Taiwan 21st CeturyWoman Education.

The alliance showed a number of video clips from Variety Flagship showing peeping Toms and girls in skimpy outfits engaging in provocative acts.

"Taiwan's freedom of speech is among one of the most liberal in the world, which is an excellent indicator of our democracy," said Government Information Office head Huang Hui-chen (黃輝珍), who was the keynote speaker at the event.

"However, such freedom should not be abused. The Media's responsibility should be to imbue audiences with positive social values, but the popular vulgar culture on TV shows has had a detrimental impact on society," Huang said.

"The Government Information Office has been aggressively imposing fines and rating television programs, and we take our responsibilities very seriously. Nevertheless, the number of TV programs on cable and satellite channels is so overwhelmingly large that it is difficult to supervise each one of them," Huang said.

Since a campaign against vulgar TV programs was launched a month ago, eight commercial sponsors have pulled their advertisements from Variety Flagship slots, the Alliance said.

Kao Hsin-ping (高欣平), the producer of Variety Flagship defended the program, saying: "We have made a lot of improvements since the program was first broadcast."

"We understand that we have social responsibilities when it comes to the quality of the show, and we hope media authorities believe that we are doing our best to measure up to the necessary media standards," Kao said.
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