Despite being a proponent of media reform, DPP Legislator Trong Chai (
Chai, who concurrently serves as a DPP Central Standing Committee member and as chairman of Formosa Television Co (FTV), declined to step down from his post at FTV, despite pressure from the media and politicians for him to do so.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
While reiterating that he founded FTV to break the KMT's control of terrestrial TV stations, Chai's leadership at FTV has been controversial since he took over the job in 1997.
The Journalist magazine quoted Yang Hsian-hong (
"Chai thinks that FTV gave too much coverage to KMT and New Party candidates, since their activities had received plenty of attention by the other three terrestrial TV stations [TTV, CTS, and CTV]," Yang was quoted as saying.
A former reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "Chai has reiterated that FTV should promote Taiwan nationalism instead of Chinese nationalism."
Yang and Chai were involved in a fight over personnel at the FTV news department in 1997. Yang left FTV because of the incident.
Lee Yung-de (
"Chai urged me to stay in the news department, but asked me to help with his bid for the DPP chairmanship at the same time. How can a media organization like that have a future?" Lee said.
As a jogger, Chai's exercise habits are considered as a sign of his endurance.
Growing up in the martial law era, Chai, when he was a high school student, decided to become a politician to fight for Taiwan's independence. In 1956, Chai was the first non-KMT member to be elected as the chairman of National Taiwan University's Student Union.
"Because of that unfair treatment [by the KMT], I decided to demolish the authority," Chai said.
Accompanied by other students seeking to oust Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), Chai launched the largest ever anti-KMT conference in Kuantzuling (關子嶺), Tainan County, in 1960.
Chai had been black-listed by the KMT in September 1960. While studying in the US, he was banned from coming back to Taiwan.
The ban didn't lessen Chai's desire to promote independence. Chai founded the Formosan Association of Public Affairs in the US and was elected as its first chairman in January 1970.
Chai decided to promote referendum legislation in 1990, when he defied the ban on him by coming back to Taiwan.
Chai was invited to head FTV in 1996 after losing his bid to become a legislator at the end of 1995.
In a statement released by Chai's office last week, Chai said that he has four goals in life -- Taiwan's independence, complete social justice and democratization, the legalization of referendums and the end of the monopolization of the media market.
"Since the four goals have yet to be completely achieved, I will make my decision after evaluating the party's policy and related regulations," Chai said in the press release.
Shih Jing-wen (
Shih said that removing political and military influences from the media is a crucial step for the nation's democratic development.
"Chai might say that he won't be involved in any operation of the TV station. But, there are always influences as long as politicians remain at any post in the media," Shih said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater