The Bureau of Health Promotion said yesterday it would ask the National Communications Commission (NCC) to look into the option of penalizing stations that broadcast cartoons with regular scenes of characters smoking.
Bureau Director-General Chiu Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said the bureau found in a survey that cartoons topped other television programs in terms of the frequency of showing smoking.
The survey also found that sports programs and movies about police or teachers often contained such scenes.
Chiu offered examples including the Japanese TV cartoons One Piece, Hiraku’s Go and Naruto (火影忍者), as well as TV series Police et Vous (波麗士大人) and the professional wrestling program Smack Down.
The survey found that, on average, smoking scenes appeared at least once every two episodes. Several cartoons had images of smokers in every episode.
“Parents may be caught off guard because they might not expect images of smokers to appear in cartoons,” Chiu said. “Because cartoons and television series are aired daily at set schedules, children and teenagers may gradually see the images of smokers as acceptable and eventually start smoking. The government needs to take this matter seriously and address it in a more aggressive manner.”
The bureau also said in a statement that while Article 22 of the Tobacco Hazard Prevention Act (菸害防制法) states that images of smoking “shall not be particularly emphasized in television programs, drama or theatrical performances, audio-visual singing and professional sports events,” the act does not specify any penalty.
The bureau said the three major media laws — the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), the Broadcasting and Television Act (廣播電視法) and the Cable Television Act (有線電視法) — include penalties for programs that impair the physical or mental health of children.
The bureau will ask the NCC to look into programs that frequently show smoking and determine a penalty for them.
Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the NCC’s communication content department, said the commission would have to turn the cases over to an independent panel to review their content and determine if they impair the physical or mental health of children.
He said the NCC might consider inviting representatives from the bureau to make their case, however, it had not received formal notice yet from the bureau.
“This matter involves judging different values,” Ho said.
“The smoking scenes may be placed in the plots as part of the producers’ creativity. The Bureau of Health Promotion may have its own thoughts on the matter, but we have to consider various factors. Wouldn’t it be strange to completely ban images of smoking?” he said.
Taiwan might be China’s next target after it has “walled off” Hong Kong from the rest of the world with its new national security legislation, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) said on Thursday. At a seminar organized by the Economic Democracy Union, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Hong Kong Outlanders and the Judicial Reform Foundation, Wu said that the legislation is simultaneously a fig leaf concealing Beijing’s autocratic rule in Hong Kong and a figurative “Berlin Wall,” denying democratic countries access to Hong Kong. Wu said it is evident that Taiwan would be China’s next target. The
YOUNGEST PATIENT: Cases of botulism have been only sporadically reported over the past few years, with two in 2015, six in 2016 and none in the past three years The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of infant botulism this year, a four-month-old boy in northern Taiwan, as well as five new cases of Japanese encephalitis confirmed last week. The boy was introduced to homemade solid food in the middle of last month, but began to experience constipation and loss of appetite on June 23, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said, adding that he was taken to the hospital when he developed a fever and shortness of breath on June 25. In the hospital, the boy also experienced a rapid heartbeat, limb
The National Taiwan Museum’s Railway Department Park in Taipei is to open to the public today. The park in Datong District (大同) near the North Gate (北門, Beimen) is one of the museum’s four branches. During the Japanese colonial era, the site housed the railway department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan’s Bureau of Transportation. After World War II, it served as the headquarters for the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) for several decades. In 2007, it was listed as a national monument under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法). At an opening ceremony yesterday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung
CHALLENGER DEEP: Lin Ying-Tsong was invited by Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo to join him on a 10-hour long trip in the company’s submersible Taiwanese-American Lin Ying-Tsong (林穎聰) last month became the first person from Asia and the 12th in human history to dive into the deepest part on Earth, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Lin, 45, an expert in deep sea acoustics with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, joined US adventurer and Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo, 54, on June 22 in a descent to the central pool of the Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the trench, which lies at a depth of more than 10,900m. The pair made the descent in a submersible named Limiting Factor, a US$37
RSS