Watchdog groups denounce fabricated news stories

Media watchdog organizations yesterday denounced the prevalence of unfounded information reported in the nation's newspapers and the large amount of obscene language on television.

A report conducted by Taiwan's Association of University Professors (台灣教授協會) and commissioned by the the Taiwan Advertisers' Association (TAA, 台灣廣告主協會) accused the nation's daily newspapers of making up news reports without citing sources, providing photos or naming anyone involved in the incidents.

Yu Ying-fu (尤英夫), a member of the professor's association, said that the reporting of news without providing sufficient information about sources or facts is "upholding gossip instead of news professionalism."

"Providing names and a clear source of information is the basic knowledge a news reporter should have. Reporting news without giving facts and sources is totally outrageous," Yu said, citing the example of a report from a local newspaper on an alleged drug party at Taipei City's Huashan Arts District (華山藝文特區).

The TAA said it would send copies of the reports to media organizations and advertisers that have registered with the TAA.

Meanwhile, at a press conference yesterday, the TAA released its media watch reports for June and July.

The report on TV entertainment programs was done by Mothers Observing Media Foundation (媽媽媒體監督基金會) for the TAA.

The foundation monitored nine entertainment shows produced by the four major broadcasting stations -- TTV, CTV, CTS and FTV -- and said they found the most serious problem among the programs was what they called improper content.

The foundation defines improper content as obscene language, pornographic or violent behavior or a violation of privacy.

Fang Di (方笛), director of the foundation said 60 percent of the improper content from the two months they monitored was made up of obscene language.

"These use curse and swear words, which are often used as catch phrases by the show's hosts. This could have a profoundly negative influence on our children," Fang said, emphasizing that the shows monitored had all been rated as suitable for viewers of all ages.