At about the time that the National Communications Commission (NCC) ruled to not renew CTi News’ license, the channel broadcast a lot of related news and commentary, marking the stories “self-related news.” What does this mean, and how should the stories be reported? Can you defend yourself without any limits?
“Self-related news” refers to disputes involving a media outlet or its owners, such as labor disputes, equity disputes and litigation disputes.
Due to such disputes’ controversial nature, and to avoid “gate keeping” or biased reporting by other media outlets, the media outlet in question speaks about its own channel, but must clearly reveal that the reports are about itself so that viewers can make their own judgements.
There are, of course, also positive and noncontroversial self-related news reports, such as reports that a program produced by the news channel has won an award, that the viewership for one of its programs has reached a new high, or that the channel’s owner has been awarded an honorary degree.
Such reports are about noncontroversial issues and present objective facts that do not confuse viewers and influence their judgement, hence they are not subject to rules about reporting news concerning a media company’s own outlet.
In addition, such rules also do not apply to negative incidents involving media employees, for example someone not paying their MRT fare, as this is a matter of individual behavior that has nothing to do with the media organization.
There have been some major news events concerning media outlets reporting news involving themselves in the past few years, such as Formosa TV’s equity dispute in 2017; the deadly fire in April this year at one of the outlets of the popular karaoke chain Cashbox Partyworld Co, which is owned by the owner of Next TV; and the ongoing dispute over CTi News’ rejected license renewal. Not renewing the license is a matter of life or death for the channel, and CTi News can, of course, cover the decision, but the question is whether it is appropriate to report only its side of the story.
The media must comply with several principles when handling self-related news.
First, public interest. A dispute should be covered extensively only when it is in the public interest. For example, the extramarital affairs and debt disputes of a media outlet owner are matters of personal ethics and have nothing to do with the public interest. The owner of a media outlet should not use it as a personal tool to clarify and argue for their own interests.
The CTi News license renewal dispute involves a potential conflict between press freedom and media regulation. This is a matter of public interest, and therefore it is worth discussing and covering extensively.
Second, news value. Since self-related news is called “news,” reporting must conform to journalistic news values regarding newsworthiness. The dispute over CTi News’ license renewal contains factors such as conflict, impact and prominence, so it is undoubtedly newsworthy.
Following these guidelines, the various news materials presented must still meet news value requirements. Not everything that happens is news, and CTi News’ handling of those secondary events is trivial.
Third, balanced reporting. As it is called “news,” balanced reporting is indispensable. CTi News has completely failed at this point. There are no different voices in CTi News’ coverage of news about itself, only one-sided support for the channel, and attacks on the government and the commission.
Surely, opposing views should also be included among those presented, otherwise viewers receive only one-sided information, making it impossible for them to form an objective judgement.
This is no different from CTi News’ coverage of the local elections in 2018 — 90 percent of the reports were focused on Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for Kaohsiung mayor.
CTi News obviously did not learn its lesson or engage in any introspection.
Fourth, the proportionality principle. When handling news about themselves, media outlets should continue to pay attention to the time allotted to reporting, and not stop reporting other major news events to only report their own news.
In the days around the NCC’s news conference announcing its ruling, the channel used almost the whole news program to report on it, which is not in accordance with the proportionality principle.
The ruling was related to the outlet’s survival, so it might have been difficult to avoid a certain level of chaos, but basic journalism ethics should still be observed.
It must not be forgotten that until the plug is pulled, the CTi News channel is still a public institution, and news dignity must be maintained.
Having said that, reporting on the “Autumn Struggle” — the annual Nov. 22 labor group protest — was downplayed or even completely ignored by almost all TV news channels except for CTi News and TVBS. It seems they are not the only media outlets that need to uphold their dignity.
Cheng Tzu-leong is an adjunct professor at National Chengchi University’s College of Communication.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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