A legislator of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday termed a request by the legislative caucus of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to disband a media monitoring group as "outrageous."
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
Hsiao said that the KMT had the media firmly in its grip through its party-run enterprises while in power, and that it thinks the DPP is doing the same.
She said that the civic groups are offering their views on media direction out of their free will and it is "unfair" that they be accused of being "unfair" by the KMT.
The legislative caucus of the KMT said the number and size of the media should be decided by free competition of market forces and political forces shouldn't meddle with media development.
The KMT caucus said the "cutting electronic media by half" drive launched by some civic groups is an attempt to stifle freedom of speech under the name of media reform, noting that Lin Yu-huei (
The media monitoring group as well as other groups called on the Government Information Office (GIO) Wednesday, asking it to show its resolve and be stringent in renewing the licenses of cable TV stations to "phase out" media of lower quality.
The legislative caucus of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a DPP ally, said that it supports press freedom, but the media should also possess self-discipline. Ho Min-hao (
He suggested that the media and the GIO meet to thrash out self-discipline guidelines to facilitate regulation by the GIO.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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