A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, with the support of a civic group, is moving to revise a series of laws to ban sensational animated news on television, Web sites and in other media.
The legislature’s Social Welfare Committee and the Environment and Health Committee began debating a proposal on Wednesday to ban “any detailed description of tools and methods used to commit crimes or suicide.”
In a response to a recent controversy over animated graphic news published by the Apple Daily newspaper, the proposal will also prohibit “graphic animated news that includes bloody or obscene images of violence, sex or horror.”
To institute the ban, the legislators propose revising three acts that govern radio, television and satellite broadcasts and the welfare of children and teenagers.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who sponsored the proposal along with KMT legislators Alex Fai (費鴻泰) and Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄), said that the use of graphic images to reconstruct crime reports reopened the wounds of the victims and their families.
Hung said that setting up a news rating system would not solve the problem.
The Apple Daily’s News-in-Motion Web feature is not news at all, she said.
“In order to prevent other media from following the lead of the Apple Daily, an absolute ban should be imposed,” Hung said.
A similar proposal was submitted by the Children Welfare League, through Shyu, Hung and fellow KMT lawmakers Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) and Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池).
The Apple Daily’s News-in-Motion clips are published on its Web site and are also accessible by mobile phone. After it was fined twice in two days — NT$500,000 each time — the newspaper on Saturday issued an apology and restricted access to the animated clips.
After the National Communications Commission (NCC) said it could do nothing about the issue, the Taipei City Government imposed the fines on the grounds that there were no restrictions preventing minors from viewing them.
Amid the controversy, Apple Daily owner Next Media’s plans to set up a TV company suffered a setback, when the NCC on Wednesday decided to extend its review of the group’s applications for three television licenses.
NCC spokesman Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said the group’s “operations proposal,” which is part of the application to explain how the TV programs will be presented, was too vague.
“We haven’t turned down the applications, but the Apple Daily should allay public concerns by stating in the application how it plans to broadcast its programs,” Chen said.
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