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.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS