The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus of politicizing the controversy of SET-TV's use of footage shot in Shanghai in its special report commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident.
"Everyone hates fabricated news stories, but SET-TV only used the wrong footage in the special report about the 228 Incident. Using the wrong footage is not the equivalent of fabricating a news story," DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (
"The KMT cannot deny its history of killing people in Taiwan by attacking SET-TV's application of the Shanghai footage in its special report about the 228 Incident," he said.
PHOTO: CNA
"The protest by KMT politicians outside the TV station [on Tuesday night] will only lead to the division of ethnic communities in Taiwan," he said.
The 228 Incident refers to the uprising that began on Feb. 27, 1947, against the KMT regime.
The KMT crushed the uprising by killing tens of thousands of Taiwanese.
SET-TV broadcast the series of special reports on the 228 Incident from March 3 through March 7. The 13 episodes were part of a program called Formosa Notes anchored by the SET-TV news chief editor Chen Ya-lin (
The Chinese-language United Daily News on Tuesday said that SET-TV had passed off an image of a KMT officer executing a Chinese Communist Party member in Shanghai in 1948 as that of a Taiwanese being killed by the KMT during the 228 Incident.
At a press conference yesterday, KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said: "There is a saying that when a lie is told 1,000 times, it becomes a truth. This was SET-TV's motive for the special report -- to make people think of the KMT when the brutal image comes to mind."
Meanwhile, a group of KMT lawmakers demanded yesterday that the Government Information Office (GIO) suspend its plan to make copies of the program and release them to schools.
The KMT said that the DPP had likely pushed the GIO to make the special report as SET-TV secured an NT$960,000 contract from the government to make the series.
GIO Director Lin Chin-sheng (林進盛) dismissed the accusation, saying that it was the 228 Memorial Foundation's proposal to make the series and that the GIO had never interfered with SET-TV's after the station took on the project.
In a meeting of People First Party lawmakers, Lin said that the GIO would not payment to SET-TV unless it correct the errors in the special report.
Pan-blue lawmakers' reactions to the series irritated victims of the 228 Incident and their family members, prompting them to call a press conference to voice support for SET-TV.
"We want to thank SET-TV for making the special report on the 228 Incident. While the image was not about 228 Incident, many Taiwanese people were killed in exactly the same way as that shown in the film," Chang Chiu-wu (
Director-general of the Taiwan 228 Union Chou Chen-thai (
Chou added that he admired SET-TV for broadcasting the report.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS