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.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS