Actress Chiang Hsia (
CTS held a board meeting yesterday afternoon to approve Chiang's nomination. Chiang used to serve on the board of Taiwan Television (TTV).
PHOTO: LIN SHU-JUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Also elected to CTS' board were pro-DPP figures Chin Heng-wei (
In a TV interview broadcast last night, the outspoken Chiang told the show's host that she had been informed by the the Presidential Office on June 11 that she would be given the position at CTS.
"My new position is indeed a reward and it makes perfect sense because I support President Chen Shui-bian (
Atop her priorities for her new job will be banning soap operas produced in China.
"If we continue to broadcast Chinese-produced soap operas, our local entertainers will have fewer job opportunities," she said.
Chiang also said that pro-unification entertainers such as Sun Tsui-feng (
Chiang characterized Sun's performances as "stunts" rather than traditional Taiwanese operas and derided Luo's abilities as a vocal artist.
Chiang also said that she would like to see news programs on CTS take a more neutral stance.
"It wouldn't be a bad idea for anchorman Li Siduan (
When asked by the media about her controversial remarks, Chiang reacted indignantly.
"Don't demonize me," she said.
"The media shouldn't have interpreted what I said out of context," she said.
Chiang said that she had never said that she would bar all entertainers with a pro-unification background.
"Although I don't have an impressive educational background, I'm not stupid enough to say something like that," she said.
Chiang said that she would like to continue to work with Lee because he is a veteran journalist with high social status.
Unimpressed with her rebuttal, six Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday requested a meeting with Lin Chia-lung (
"While the government has pledged to free the media from political influence, it is in fact meddling in the personnel arrangements of CTS," said KMT Legislator Liao Feng-te (
"It only proves that the DPP administration doesn't mean what it says about nationalizing media outlets," Liao said.
KMT Legislators Huang Teh-fu (
"Could you tell me what she has done to deserve the position? Is it her educational background or experience?" Huang said.
Praising Chiang's 30 years of experience in show business, Lin said that everybody has political beliefs and that Chiang just happened to be someone who was explicit about hers.
Lin also threw his backing behind Chiang's proposal to ban China-produced TV programs. However, he refused to comment on Chiang's remark about her new job being a political reward, saying that he wanted to know for sure if she had said such a thing.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400