The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday abolished a mechanism that allows people reporting on allegedly illegal content aired over the radio or television to keep a portion of the penalty as a reward.
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said the mechanism was established in 2007 to encourage people to report on content that might infringe on broadcasting regulations.
Through the mechanism, people informing the commission about such content were able to keep 1 percent of the monetary penalty as a reward.
However, Yu said that in 2011 the Legislative Yuan required that the rewards be dropped to curb expenses.
The commission then ruled in 2012 that the percentage was to be reduced from 1 percent to 0.1 percent, he said. Statistics from the NCC showed that the commission received 27,889 content complaints between 2008 and last year, but it only handed down a punishment in 2,084 cases.
Among these cases, a reward was granted to only 42.
The commission gave out a total of NT$128,900 for 37 cases in which people could keep 1 percent of the penalty as a reward.
After the percentage was lowered to 0.1 percent, the cash reward was given in five different cases, with the highest reward totaling only NT$210. The commission said that, if a media outlet is fined NT$9,000, the reward would only be NT$9, which would be further reduced to NT$7.2 after taxes.
The commission said that only 17 percent of people collected the rewards granted, adding that recipients were required to collect rewards within six months after being contacted by NCC staff.
“Most complaints only reflect the personal preferences of the individual reporting the content, which normally does not violate any regulations. Furthermore, such a mechanism is no longer needed to incentivize the reporting of illegal content in the age of the Internet,” Yu said.
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