Cable news channel ERA News (ERA, 年代新聞) delayed passing on call-in requests for help from Typhoon Morakot victims to government agencies, an investigation by the National Communications Commission (NCC) showed yesterday.
“Both anchors and news tickers appearing on the side of the TV screen gave viewers the impression that their requests would be dealt with immediately,” NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said. “But investigations have shown that there was ... a lag between the time the requests were received and the time those requests were transferred to government agencies. It was not the instant or immediate service that was promised.”
The NCC said that in some instances information from calls in the morning was not passed on to authorities until 10pm or 11pm.
However, the commission did not fine ERA and said it would simply send an official note to the station asking it to review procedures for handling call-in requests.
The commission further said in a press release that though media laws do not specifically regulate news reporting of natural disasters, media bear a social responsibility and should not mislead viewers into thinking their messages will be addressed immediately.
The press release also said that the commission had invited representatives from television stations and media associations to jointly establish a standard operating procedure for handling requests for assistance during natural disasters.
Meanwhile, Chen reiterated yesterday that the commission’s position on the government, political parties and the military withdrawing from media operations remains unchanged, but that amendments to the related clauses in the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) are still open for discussion.
The NCC on Tuesday suggested relaxing restrictions on such groups owning shares in media groups.
Chen said the commission has faced difficulties when ruling in some cases, citing Delta Electronics’ (台達電) investment in Elta TV (愛爾達). The commission considered that relaxing the restrictions was a serious matter and wanted to hear more from media operators before making any changes, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching