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DPP legislator accuses KMT of funding TV show

A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) off illegally funding a television call-in show.

"The KMT has dipped its finger into the production of The Hope of Taiwanese Hearts (台灣心希望) by putting up NT$18 million," DPP Legislator Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said.

"By commissioning a private company to produce the program, the party dominates the commentary show by appointing the program's host and holding the final say over the program's contents," Lo said.

The Hope of Taiwanese Hearts first aired on Sept. 22. Chiang Ming-chin (江岷欽), professor of public administration at Taipei University, hosts the show on Much TV every weekday.

Lo argued that the involvement of the KMT violated a number of laws: the Broadcasting and Television Law (廣播電視法), the Satellite Broadcasting Law (衛星廣播電視法) and the Cable Television Law (有線廣播電視法).

"A program funded and produced by a political party, such as the KMT, for propagating its political views must not be classified as a program," Lo said. "It is a political advertisement that should follow the rules of identifying its producer and sponsor at the end of broadcast."

He said that the KMT's anonymous role in the program also infringed an article in the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法), which bans political parties from making use of the media industry to sway elections.

"When the audience of the call-in show thinks that they are watching a neutral commentary, they are deceived by a political party that tries to brainwash the voters," he said.

He urged the Government Information Office (GIO), which regulates much of the nation's media, to investigate the KMT's influence over the show.

"The investigation should begin right away and the GIO should take action against the TV station once the program is found to be connected with the KMT," he said.

Broadcasting regulations state that the GIO should warn the TV station if it is found to be airing programs illegally funded by a political party. The TV station can be fined if it continues to broadcast the program.

In response, KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) acknowledged that his party had given money to the call-in show to help the cable TV station produce the program.

But he said the show was politically impartial and "the KMT never interferes with the guests invited" to it.

He suggested that the illegal funding of television shows was more likely to come from the DPP or the GIO itself.

The GIO denied Tsai's allegation, while Lo told the KMT spokesman, "The KMT should ask its lawmakers to make similar demands to mine, that the GIO probe those programs if it seeks fair scrutiny."

Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that it was "absolutely impossible" for the DPP-led government to invest in any TV station or program.

"While they make such a false accusation, I'd like to point out that when the KMT was in power, it had stakes both in TV and radio stations," he said. "It tells us one thing, and that is the KMT mixed up its party coffer with that of the state."

To solve the problem once and for all, Government Information Office Director-General Huang Hui-chen (黃輝珍) said it is necessary for the legislature to pass the amendments to the broadcasting and television law.

additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling(Staff Reporter)
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