Terrestrial TV stations could soon be required to broadcast at least two or three hours of children’s programming daily, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The media regulator unveiled its guidelines on communications policy for children and teenagers ahead of National Children’s Day on Monday. In the guidelines, the commission proposed requiring TV channel operators to produce quality programs of various types for children and teenagers.
It also proposed setting clear regulations on the minimum number of hours available to these programs, as well as the specific times to broadcast them. The commission listed this as one of the policy goals it aims to accomplish within two to three years.
NCC Commissioner Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), who is in charge of the taskforce working on the guidelines, said research showed that the nation’s terrestrial TV channels allotted an average of 80 minutes a day for programming for children and teenagers. Ninety-three percent of those programs were cartoons imported from Japan, China, the US and other countries, and rerun rates were about 53 percent.
The number of hours allocated for children’s and teenagers’ programs on cable TV channels, meanwhile, only accounted for 6 percent of the total each day, she said.
“Given that children and teenagers account for 21 percent of the nation’s population, the TV programs available to them are clearly inadequate,” Weng said.
Weng called on the Executive Yuan to dedicate 0.1 percent of the nation’s budget for educational, scientific and cultural projects to funding the production of TV programs for children and teenagers.
The guidelines also state that the commission will reevaluate the nation’s TV program-rating system.
Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the commission’s communication content department, said the current system had many gray areas.
“Content of some TV series is not fit to be aired in general rating hours,” Ho said. “Nor are some of the cartoons, which may contain content inappropriate for children.”
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei
RSS