Beginning Monday, Formosa Television (FTV) will present an hour-long English-language nightly news program to help foreigners better understand Taiwan.
From Sept. 13 onwards, FTV English news will be aired on FTV News Station at 11pm, and will be rerun at 6am the following morning on FTV's terrestrial station. In addition, the program will be aired on International Community Radio Taipei FM 100 the following morning from 5:30am to 6am from Tuesday to Friday.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
The news anchors selected for the program are Jinny Chang (張嘉欣) and Jeffrey Mindich.
"After this re-organization, FTV's English-language news is going from 15 minutes to an hour long. This news program will serve as a window through which Taiwan's national image is presented, as well as providing an environment to learn English. The news program is not simply a replica of the Chinese-language news program, but has its own specialized team, which handles everything from production to conducting interviews," Government Information Office (GIO) Director-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at the program's launching ceremony yesterday at the SPOT-Taipei Film House. Organizers said the location was selected due to its past -- between 1949 and 1978 the house served as the US ambassador's official residence.
"I hope that this news program in the future may serve as a cultural export to promote Taiwan. Right now, Taiwanese news programs aired overseas are in Chinese, which foreigners may not understand," Lin said.
FTV's chief said the English-language news program was produced out of good will, rather than a desire to make a profit.
"So far, FTV has put NT$50 million into its English-language news programs. FTV is the only television station in Taiwan which still produces news programs in English. However, despite the lack of a financial return, FTV insists on presenting local and international news in English, hoping to connect with the world and echoing President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) desires," said FTV General Manager Chen Kang-hsin (陳剛信).
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