CtiTV was yesterday again fined NT$1 million (US$32,420) by the National Communications Commission, this time for failing to verify the information a pomelo farmer gave during a political talk show before airing it.
The news story was seen as the reason the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the legislative by-election in Tainan, a traditional DPP stronghold, by only a narrow margin.
The penalty came after it was fined NT$1 million at the end of last month for failing to adhere to fact-verification guidelines stipulated in the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法).
According to the commission, the host of CtiTV’s Political Gossip (大政治大爆卦) interviewed a pomelo farmer in a program that aired on March 8.
The farmer said that the price of pomelo was so low last year that 2 million tonnes of the fruit had to be dumped into the Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫).
Other farmers standing near the interviewee said that they had not received the subsidies that they had applied for.
The host turned the statements from the interviewee into a “news report” without first verifying the authenticity of the information with another source, the commission said.
The station also wrote the headline for the story without verifying what the farmer had said, which showed that the station’s news editing desk was not functioning as it should, it said.
Although the Council of Agriculture and other farmers have filed complaints about the story, CtiTV had only issued a correction about the subsidies and did not correct the dumping statement, the commission said, adding that this has severely disrupted the agricultural market.
Meanwhile, CtiTV News broadcast a story on March 12 about the proposal to raise pandas in Kaohsiung’s Shoushan Zoo, in which the reporter compared pandas with Formosan black bears and concluded that the former were cuter than the latter, the commission said.
“The news report could mislead the public about the right way to preserve and protect wildlife. We have asked the CtiTV to strictly enforce its self-disciplinary mechanism and demonstrate professionalism in reporting this type of topic. The station is also asked to use this particular story as a case for its internal training,” the commission said.
CtiTV said it found the ruling unacceptable and filed an administrative lawsuit, adding that it has sued commission officials for malfeasance.
In other news, Asia Pacific Telecom and Taiwan Mobile were yesterday fined NT$1.8 million each, because Asia Pacific has been using Taiwan Mobile’s networks without first securing the commission’s approval.
Asia Pacific Telecom had been using the 3G and 4G networks built by Taiwan Mobile, which the commission deemed illegal.
Before yesterday’s penalty, each had accumulated fines of NT$14.7 million.
Since Oct. 31, Asia Pacific Telecom had stopped using the Taiwan Mobile’s 4G network, the commission said.
Chinese over-the-top (OTT) service provider iQiyi cannot register as a provider in Taiwan after the Mainland Affairs Council declared it to be an illegal service, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday. Both iQiyi and WeTV were deemed to be illegal Chinese OTT operators in an interdepartmental meeting on Friday last week, officials said, adding that this prohibits them from marketing their services in Taiwan or seeking subscribers. The government plans to block a local server that iQiyi has been using to transmit content to domestic audiences, which would disrupt its content transmission. OTT Entertainment Ltd, which is enlisted by iQiyi to
The Taipei Grand Mosque yesterday said its earlier decision to cancel Eid al-Fitr celebrations on Sunday to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan would stand, even though there have been no new domestic cases of COVID-19 in more than a month. It will be the first time in 60 years that the event has not be held at the mosque. The Ministry of Labor had asked all mosques to suspend Eid al-Fitr celebrations and prayers this year, due to COVID-19 concerns, and encouraged Muslims to pray at home. This year Ramadan began on April 23 and is to
KAOHSIUNG VOTE: A city official allegedly wrote a message calling on supporters of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu not to participate in the vote next month Prosecutors on Wednesday initiated an investigation of Kaohsiung Civil Affairs Bureau Director-General Tsao Huan-jung (曹桓榮) for allegedly telling supporters of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to interfere with a recall vote against Han, while pan-green politicians denounced the mayor and his team for devising ways to obstruct voting. After receiving complaints from residents, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office launched its probe of Tsao for alleged breaches of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法). Complainants provided evidence that Tsao on Saturday last week wrote on messaging app Line that Han supporters should not vote in the June 6 recall vote, saying:
BILINGUAL ASSISTANCE: The center launched a chat bot that features Chinese and English interfaces to provide foreigners with instant information about the pandemic The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that it would discuss with other nations the possibility of allowing businesspeople to visit on a case-by-case basis. Asked about loosening border restrictions, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said at the daily CECC news briefing that while the center is cautious about opening the nation’s borders, it would aim to diminish obstacles for important trade interactions without risking transmission of the novel coronavirus. Several foreign representatives in Taiwan have expressed an interest in the matter and the center would conduct related negotiations with the help of the
RSS