The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it fined CtiTV News NT$200,000 (US$6,487) for failing to check the facts when reporting about then-Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai’s (陳其邁) rally in Cishan District (旗山) in November last year.
It was the first time since the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) was amended in 2016 that the commission invoked Article 27, Paragraph 3, Subparagraph 4, which requires broadcasting companies to adhere to the principle of fact-checking, to penalize broadcast media.
The controversy over CtiTV’s report began when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) hosted a campaign rally for Chen on Nov.11.
Photo: CNA
Toward the end of the rally, Chiu, speaking in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) thanked her supporters for staying for so long into the rally, but the news station reported that Chiu asked people not to leave.
Chiu later filed a complaint with the NCC, saying that CtiTV’s misinterpretation of her announcement affected the tone of Chen’s campaign.
The content was reviewed by an independent committee formed by third-party experts, NCC spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
The committee found that the broadcast deliberately twisted Chiu’s statement and misled the audience, he said, adding that CtiTV did not run a correction.
Eastern Broadcasting Co (EBC) was also fined NT$200,000 for disseminating false information about African swine fever, which the commission said could undermine efforts to keep the disease out of the nation.
The committee ruled that EBC News breached Article 27, Paragraph 3, Subparagraph 3 of the act, which bans satellite broadcasting companies from producing content that could disrupt public order and adversely affect good social customs, Wong said.
EBC Evening News on Dec.13 reported that people who purchased products on the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao (淘寶) were given pork sausages as gifts and said that the sausages could be contaminated with the disease, the committee said.
The program’s headline suggested that people thoroughly cook the sausages before eating them or throw them away, but that is not the correct way to handle pork from disease-affected areas as suggested by the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, the commission said.
Under the act, broadcasting companies can be fined NT$200,000 to NT$2 million for breaching the subparagraphs, Wong said.
However, EBC News changed the headline of the report after its news department identified the problems with it, Wong said, adding that the commission therefore handed it a more lenient fine.
Regarding the controversies caused by last year’s broadcast of commercials produced by the Happiness of Our Next Generation Alliance, a group opposed to same-sex marriage, Wong said that the independent committee told the commission that it should remind all broadcast media business associations to pay attention to diversity when broadcasting commercials.
The commission would also hold a seminar this year to discuss how advertisements could be more balanced in reflecting public opinion on different issues.
In related news, the commission yesterday passed a draft for a proposed media diversity preservation and monopolization prevention act, which is soon to be submitted to the Executive Yuan for review.
The draft act would ban mergers among terrestrial television services, the commission said, adding that mergers among satellite broadcasters and cable broadcasters would be banned if any party holds more than 30 percent of the market share.
The bill also includes clauses that prohibit cable television systems from engaging in cross-media integration if they own more than 20 percent of the nation’s cable service subscribers.
A broadcasting company can own no more than three media outlets, it said.
For cases that do not fall into any of the stated categories, the commission would review media mergers with a list of criteria and ensure that they do not compromise the public interest, the commission said.
Management at financial holding companies would also be barred from holding more than 10 percent of a media company’s shares or directly or indirectly controlling its personnel, finance and operations, it said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
RSS