CtiTV News has been fined NT$600,000 (US$20,033) for broadcasting a false statement by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) in one of its political talk shows, the National Communications Commission said yesterday.
Viewers had complained about an episode of News Tornado (新聞龍捲風) aired on June 24 last year, the commission said.
According to the commission’s archival footage, the talk show host called Hsieh, who said that police could accurately count the number of people at a campaign rally in Hsinchu in support of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who was then the KMT’s presidential candidate, because the government was monitoring the whereabouts of Han’s supporters through their mobile phones.
Police could also determine the age group and gender of the supporters by examining the personal information registered to mobile phone numbers serviced by six to eight base stations surrounding the rally’s venue, Hsieh said.
Hsieh’s comments were determined to be rumors intended to cause panic, the commission said.
“In this case, the host should have pressed Hsieh for evidence to support his claims, but failed to do so,” it said.
“The channel was fined NT$600,000 for breaching Article 27 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法), which stipulates that broadcast news media should not impugn on the principle of fact verification, and causing damage to the public interest,” Department of Broadcasting and Content specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said.
CtiTV has been fined a total of NT$5.63 million for contravening the act 11 times since last year, he said, adding that seven of the infractions were related to coverage of Han.
As CtiTV is to renew its license at the end of this year, the commission would take all factors into consideration when reviewing its license renewal application, including its record of offenses, commission acting spokesman Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said.
The Taipei District Court on Jan. 2 overturned a NT$200,000 fine the commission last year imposed on CtiTV for failing to fact-check when reporting about a November 2018 rally in Kaohsiung’s Cishan District (旗山) by former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), who was then the party’s Kaohsiung mayoral candidate.
Although the commission has vowed to appeal the court’s ruling, industry observers said that the verdict would likely goad the channel into pursuing another Han-related lawsuit.
Meanwhile, SET-TV News and Formosa TV News were asked to improve the quality of their news programming after they allegedly misquoted a question by Han to Chen Chi-mai, who had assumed the post of vice premier after losing the election to Han, during a joint inspection of the city last year.
Han had said: “Why did dengue fever spread from this particular borough to other boroughs,” but the two stations quoted him as saying: “Why would dengue fever spread?”
Both stations claimed that their reporters’ microphones failed to pick up the latter part of Han’s statement because Han and Chen Chi-mai were surrounded by too many reporters at the time, but the commission told them that they should not misquote statements and issue corrections if they do, Chen Shu-ming said.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS