SET-TV makes apology for `mistake' with 228 footage

SET-TV apologized yesterday for its misuse of footage in a series of special reports on the 228 Incident that the station broadcast in March.

"We've made a mistake by using the footage ? because we were unaware of it," SET-TV news chief editor Chen Ya-lin (陳雅琳) said.

"We'd like to apologize to the public for it [the mistake], and would also like to apologize to Juan Mei-shu (阮美姝) for the trouble that the incident might have brought her," Chen said.

Juan is the daughter of a 228 Incident victim who researched the history of the tragedy and provided the footage SET-TV later misused.

Juan accepted the TV station's apology and said that the controversy over the series has become politicized.

"The KMT is using me as a tool for political gain and they should stop it," Juan told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, the Association of Taiwanese Journalists yesterday condemned SET-TV for misleading viewers with the video clips and urged it to take full responsibility for its mistakes.

"The station failed to clarify the background of the video clips and did mislead the audience into believing that those clips were from the 228 Incident. It should face its own mistakes with honesty and offer an apology," the association said in a written statement.

Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih