In order to mitigate pressure from the Media Monitor Alliance regarding its erotic content, the Apple Daily yesterday removed some of its more sexually suggestive pages.
"Right now, the alliance is targeting graphics, serial literature and advertisements with heavy sexual connotations, that are not fit to be viewed by underage individuals," Broadcasting Development Fund CEO Connie Lin (林育卉) said yesterday.
Examples of sexually suggestive content in the Apple Daily included columns dedicated to moaning during sexual intercourse and advertisements for erotic products.
Although Apple Daily yesterday published a public announcement vowing to filter out all its sexually suggestive content, pictures of girls in skimpy clothes could still be found in yesterday's edition.
The Media Monitor Alliance initially planned to hold a protest at the newspaper's Taipei headquarters next Thursday, but due to the improvements made by the newspaper, the alliance said the protest might take place in a different form.
"We are thankful for Apple Daily's co-operation, but we will still keep the newspaper under close watch. The scheduled visit to its headquarters next Thursday will still take place. If the newspaper keeps it word between now and Wednesday, our visit will be a friendly one as we would be encouraged by their attitude," Lin said.
The Broadcasting Development Fund is a key member of the Media Monitor Alliance.
According to Lin, judging by her previous dealings with Apple Daily, the newspaper has been crafty in manipulating its sexual content.
"On Nov. 16 last year, the alliance made its first public call for the Apple Daily to remove pages F1 and F2, which contained a large amount of sexually explicit language and graphics. In response, Apple Daily removed these two pages; however, their sexual contents were merely moved to other pages," Lin said.
Furthermore, Lin pointed out, the alliance had also urged the newspaper not to publish any physically intimate pictures.
"What happened then was that Apple Daily replaced real people with dummies and animals in these intimate pictures," Lin said.
On Jan. 5, the alliance sent a letter to all Taipei City councilors to urge them to help crack down on Apple Daily's pornographic content. In response, Taipei City councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) held a press conference on Wednesday asking the Taipei city government to handle this matter effectively.
Lin said that the newspaper has dragged down the quality of other Taiwanese newspapers since it entered the Taiwanese market.
"Since Apple Daily was established here, we have found that the editorial content of other newspapers have started to show signs of deterioration.
"The China Times Express also contains sexually suggestive material and has been added to our watch list," Lin said.
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