A National Communications Commission (NCC) survey found that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in July still received more television news coverage than any other politician.
The commission decided to survey TV news content every two months, as it was accused of lacking consistent standards when, in March, it ruled that CtiTV news should improve its internal control mechanisms to reduce viewer complaints.
The channel was accused of giving a disproportionate amount of coverage to certain politicians and failing to verify information before airing it, the commission said.
Photo: CNA
The commission decided to examine how politicians are covered on all TV news channels: Taiwan Television (TTV), China Television (CTV), Chinese Television System (CTS), Next TV, ERA TV, Eastern Broadcasting Corp (EBC), CtiTV, Formosa TV (FTV), Sanlih TV, TVBS and Global News.
So far, the commission has looked at the content broadcast in March, May and July.
For the survey in July, the commission said it monitored the mid-day and evening news from July 21 to July 27, in which news on politicians was evaluated based on the number of reports as well as the time spent covering them.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
The survey found that TTV, CTS and EBC spent more time covering President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is seeking re-election, while Han, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, dominated in coverage from the remaining eight channels.
In the March survey, Han dominated all 11 news channels, the commission said.
The survey found that three channels with the highest coverage of Han were CtiTV, ERA TV and Sanlih TV.
CtiTV aired stories about Han 62.47 percent of the time, compared with only 19.29 percent for Tsai. ERA and Sanlih covered Han for 42.4 percent and 41.57 percent of the time, respectively.
The commission also found that in July the average time spent reporting on politicians dropped to 25.49 percent from 34.59 percent in March.
“We have also seen CtiTV improve the way that it covers politicians, but we hope that it continues striving to offer more diverse content to the public,” NCC specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said.
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