MEDIA
Olympics to be shown in HD
Five terrestrial television networks announced on Thursday they would deliver high-definition broadcasts of this year’s London Olympic Games, in line with the government’s implementation of a nationwide switch to digital broadcasting this summer. The five networks are China Television Co, Taiwan Television Enterprise, Chinese Television System, Formosa TV (FTV) and Taiwan Public Television Service. FTV general manager Chen Gang-sin (陳剛信) said starting on July 1 this year, the government would implement a nationwide switch to digital broadcasting, providing the public with better sound and viewing quality. “It would be a pity not to broadcast the green sports fields in high definition,” Chen said.
MEDIA
‘Seediq Bale’ comic planned
A French edition of the Seediq Bale comic by artist Chiu Ruo-lung (邱若龍) is to be released soon, an official of the company that is publishing the book said. Dominique Veret, editorial director of the France-based Akata publishing house, confirmed his company would translate the graphic novel into French. The book is to be launched during next year’s Angouleme International Comics Festival, Veret said. Chiu is the artistic director of the Taiwanese hit film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, about an uprising by the Sediq Aboriginal tribe against Japanese rule in 1930 known as the Wushe Incident. Chiu’s Seediq Bale is the first time the historical event has been depicted in a graphic novel format.
DIPLOMACY
Friendship body established
The legislature established a body yesterday to promote friendship with the European parliament and encourage closer exchanges in the future. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) was named honorary chairman of the group — called the Republic of China-European Parliamentary Amity Association — and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) was made chairman. KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), People First Party Legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) were named deputy chairmen of the body. Wang thanked the European parliament for supporting Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and also for backing visa-waiver treatment for Taiwanese nationals in the Schengen Area. Lu said 66 of Taiwan’s 113 legislators are members of the friendship promotion group, and he expects the association to provide strong support to bilateral economic, tourism and cultural exchanges. Tamas Maczak, the deputy head of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, said he was happy to see the establishment of the group.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,