The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday pledged to enforce the Meteorology Law, in which media outlets can be fined up to NT$50,000 for releasing false or exaggerated reports about the weather.
"Although the penalty sounds light, the purpose of the law is to correct the media's reporting on the weather," Yeh Tien-chiang (葉天降), director of the CWB's weather forecasting center, said yesterday.
Typhoon Sinlaku swept over northern Taiwan last week without triggering any severe disasters as predicted by meteorologists.
In light of public complaints regarding the bureau's predictions about Typhoon Sinlaku's impact on Taiwan, the CWB held a press conference yesterday to emphasize its determination to enforce the Meteorology Law to restrain local news media from exaggerating weather information.
Under the law, news media are not only required to truthfully disseminate weather warnings issued by the CWB in a timely fashion, but they also have to make corrections in case of mistakes.
Moreover, the law also stipulates that those who release predictions or weather warnings without authorization can face fines of up to NT$50,000.
But Yeh confirmed yesterday that the bureau would not place any punishment on any media over their reports on Sinlaku, "because the news networks corrected the mistakes in their forecasts after receiving warnings from the bureau.
"But we will sternly implement the punishment stated in the law in the future," he said.
According to Yeh, the bureau issued warnings to some media outlets for exaggerated or incorrect predictions about Typhoon Sinlaku last week. But he refused to name the companies.
Meanwhile, the bureau also accounted for its own mistake in predicting the route of Sinlaku. Yeh conceded that there was an average of 91km difference between Sinlaku's possible routes forecasted by the CWB and the actual route.
In addition, winds were weaker than forecast. In the Taipei area, for example, Sinlaku generated winds of force-7 strength (13.9m to 17.1m per second) despite the weather bureau's prediction that force-8 winds could be expected (17.2m to 20.7m per second).
"The CWB's prediction is never totally accurate," said Yeh, stressing that the public has to acknowledge that technology limits prevent the bureau from making 100-percent accurate weather forecasts.
But Yeh also promised that the bureau would try to make further improvements by gathering more satellite and information from advanced nations, such as the US and Japan, to assist weather predictions in the future.
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