Suspicions have surfaced about the new qualification rules that the Ministry of Culture has set for this year’s Taipei TV Festival, with critics alleging that the regulatory overhaul is aimed at excluding the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV, 新唐人電視台) channel, which is known for its critical stance on China, from the event.
The new rules listed in the brochures advertising the festival, which is scheduled for September, stipulate that a channel must have a viewership penetration rate of at least 60 percent of all cable TV subscribers to qualify for the event.
The regulations also prohibit the participation of self-funded channels and state that all applicants will be require to submit to an appraisal, but do not elaborate on what the procedure will entail and who will be carrying it out.
Citing an incident during last year’s festival in which dozens of Chinese channels withdrew from the event to protest the participation of NTDTV, Flora Chang (張錦華), a professor at National Taiwan University, said she suspected that the rule changes were directed at the channel.
NTDTV’s outspoken stance against Chinese bureaucracy and programs about Beijing’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners have irked Chinese authorities in the past.
Chang pointed to the eligibility of self-funded and non-funded channels to apply for the event in the past, adding that only a handful of non-funded channels were made to undergo a review before being admitted to the festival, whereas this year, all self-funded channels are completely shut out and all participants are subject to appraisal.
Calling the revised vetting rules “odd,” Chang said they not only undermine the visibility of Taiwanese TV channels on the global stage, but are also overkill for high-quality independent cable TV operators.
In response to the misgivings, the ministry issued a statement yesterday saying that appraisals are conducted every year and that the 60 percent viewership cap was imposed in an effort to boost the sales volumes of high-quality domestic television shows.
However, some TV operators said they found the ministry’s response unconvincing, saying that there are as many as 250 licensed TV channels nationwide and that of these, only 100 are commonly viewed by the general public.
It is inherently unfair to evaluate a channel solely based on its penetration rate, they added.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a