Hundreds of people marched in Taipei yesterday to demand the closure of TVBS after a series of false reports.
The demonstrators, mobilized by several civic groups, expressed their anger towards TVBS by asking the National Communications Commission (NCC) to shut down the TV station as they marched from the Control Yuan to the TVBS headquarters on Bade Road.
"TVBS -- shut down!" The crowd shouted as they marched.
PHOTO: CNA
"The news media, as a source of information for the public, should provide accurate information," said Tsay Ting-kuei (
"After the tar duck [report], the gangster video, and the abolition of Tomb Sweeping Day? we can't tolerate the station causing any more social chaos," he added.
The "tar duck" report was a story broadcast by the station last December claiming some farmers removed feathers from ducks sold to restaurants by applying tar and ripping it off.
The story proved to be false.
Last month, the station aired footage of a gangster threatening to kill his estranged gang boss.
TVBS claimed the gangster had sent the video to the station, but it later emerged that the video footage had been fabricated by the station. Earlier this month, the station reported that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) planned to abolish the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day on April 5.
TVBS apologized when they later discovered that the DPP's actual plan was to cancel official commemoration of Chiang Kai-shek's (
"We're here to tell TVBS not to stir up any more social unrest," a demonstrator surnamed Lo from Hsinchu, said.
Some 300 police officers were called in to prevent demonstrators from rushing into the station, but there were no serious conflicts reported.
Officials at TVBS said the station would not respond to demonstrations by political groups.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS