China Television Co’s (CTV) controversial removal of remarks against media monopolization made by Wu Ching-feng (吳青峰), the lead singer of the popular band Sodagreen (蘇打綠), during his New Year’s Eve performance in Greater Kaohsiung from its rerun of the festivities continues to brew, with scores of netizens calling the TV station “shameless and despicable.”
Prior to his performance of Days Without Cigarettes (沒有菸抽的日子), whose lyrics were written by exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹), at Kaohsiung’s E-da World theme park on Monday night, Wu expressed his opposition to media monopolization on stage in front of tens of thousands of fans.
“From my perspective, the media should be an open platform through which the truth is conveyed, rather than something that attempts to monopolize [the market] or seeks to manipulate you and me,” Wu said.
However, Wu’s rhetoric was cut from the rerun aired by CTV, which was in charge of broadcasting the New Year’s Eve celebration.
CTV is one of the many media outlets owned by the pro-China Want Want China Times Group, which also owns CtiTV and the Chinese-language newspapers Want Daily, China Times and China Times Weekly.
The media conglomerate was the most contentious buyer in the NT$17.5 billion (US$600.86 million) acquisition of Next Media Group’s four Taiwanese media outlets in November due to its already sizeable share of the country’s media market.
The deal, which is still pending approval by regulatory agencies in Taiwan, has given rise to grave public concern over media concentration and perceived increasing Chinese influence over the nation’s media environment.
The TV station’s removal of the anti-trust remarks has caused a public uproar and met with severe condemnation from netizens, with some describing it as a “despicable” media outlet for deleting such a minor criticism.
Some also ridiculed the Want Want China Times Group, saying Wu’s remarks provoked the media giant into perfectly demonstrating the dangers of media monopolization.
Wang joined in the criticism of CTV on his Facebook page on Tuesday, where he posted a message that read: “What makes CTV’s deletion of [Wu] Ching-feng’s anti-media monopoly rhetoric any different from [the reprehensible doings] of the Chinese Communist Party?”
Wang said the TV station’s conduct self-evidently justified the students protesting against media monopolization, referring to a spate of demonstrations consisting mostly of students against the Next Media deal and media concentration.
“Media is a social instrument of communication. How could you [CTV] just air the things you want us to see, but leave out the things that we want to see?” Wang said, adding that there would be no justice if such a media outlet were not boycotted.
The CTV said the comments were edited out for the one-hour rerun, which was much shorter than the live broadcast.
The TV station said that it did not cut out any parts of the show for political purposes.
In addition to issues regarding media monopolization, Wu had previously voiced support on Sina’s Weibo’s microblogging site for Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a National Tsing Hua University student who was criticized last month by the Chinese-language United Daily News as being “rude” in his criticism of Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧).
“Aren’t those who criticize others as being impolite the distribution centers of impoliteness themselves?” Wu wrote.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
The Taipei District Court today ruled to extend the incommunicado detention of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) for two more months as part of an ongoing corruption trial. Codefendants in the case — real-estate tycoon Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) and Ko's former mayoral office head Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗) — were granted bail of NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) and NT$20 million respectively. Sheen and Lee would also be barred from leaving the country for eight months and prohibited from contact with, harassing, threatening or inquiring after the case with codefendants or witnesses. The two would also be