In an effort to address public suspicions that the ruling party has furtively provided funding to TV stations in order to promote its chances in the upcoming presidential election, the Cabinet announced yesterday that TV programs produced or funded by the government will from now on clearly indicate the show's producer or sponsor.
"To avoid confusing or misleading the viewers with partisan propaganda, we'll immediately implement this measure, and we're calling on other political parties to follow suit," Government Information Office (GIO) Director-General Huang Hui-chen (黃輝珍) said at a press conference yesterday morning.
Huang also called on the nation's 18 political talk shows or call-in TV programs to remain politically neutral, impartial and responsible.
"While we respect free speech completely, we hope they realize that with freedom comes responsibility," Huang said.
Huang made the remarks at the request of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and People First Party (PFP) legislative caucuses.
DPP Legislator Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) on Wednesday accused the KMT of involving itself in the production of a TV call-in program, The Hope of Taiwanese Hearts, (台灣心希望,) by putting up NT$18 million. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), however, suggested that the illegal funding of television shows was more likely to come from the DPP or the GIO itself.
Saying that the GIO has earmarked NT$1.1 billion this year to insert government propaganda into TV talk shows, news programs and variety shows, the PFP legislative caucus requested that the GIO stop such practices by 10am today, or face having its budget cut by NT$1.1 billion and having Huang impeached by the Control Yuan.
Huang yesterday dismissed the PFP's accusation that Vice Premier Lin Hsin-i (林信義) had paid a TV station NT$200,000 in exchange for an interview on one of its programs to promote the government.
"The allegation is totally untrue," Huang said. "What really happened was that the station proposed that the vice premier donate NT$200,000 before the interview, but the proposition was flatly turned down by me when they broached the subject."
Huang said that while the onus of explaining government initiatives to the public fell to government officials, these officials should not and cannot pay or accept any money to do so.
"It did not happen then and it will never, I repeat never, happen in the future," Huang said.
Huang also rebuffed another accusation -- that the GIO had paid a TV station NT$440,000 to conduct election-related opinion polls. "We opted not to do so, although it was one of the options offered by the station," Huang said.
Huang did, however, confirm that the GIO has assisted government agencies in negotiating with the media to purchase air time and advertising space to promote government policies.
"Even so, those programs or commercials are charity or livelihood-oriented, and not tinged with any political ideology," Huang said. "We're willing to make necessary and reasonable adjustments if the opposition alliance is still doubtful about our resolve to separate government propaganda from political views."
Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday said that it is "normal" for the government to purchase air time or advertising space to promote government policies and initiatives to the people.
"The bottom line is that we'll stay away from the management of the media, and the procurement process has to be open, transparent and fair," Yu 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:
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