Media watchdog organizations are calling this past December a month of pornography and violence, due to the prevalence of paparazzi-style coverage churned out by Taiwan's media.
The Taiwan Advertiser Association (TAA) released media observation reports for December and November at a press conference yesterday.
The reports were conducted under the TAA's commission by four associations, including the Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP), the Taiwan chapter of Ending Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT), the Mothers Observing Media Foundation and the Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ).
Both the ATJ and the TAUP concluded in their reports that the Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳) sex-VCD scandal in December made Taiwan's broadcast and print media organizations more sensationalist.
The ATJ's report, which focuses on TV call-in talk shows, said the programs ignore public issues in the discussions in favor of paying attention only to gossip and politicians' personal affairs.
"It's regrettable that important public issues, such as implementation of the national pension program and the constitutional amendments for creating a presidential government system, have been completely ignored by these call-in shows," the ATJ said in its report.
The ATJ specifically criticized the top-rated call-in show, the "2100 The Public Speaking Out" (2100 全民開講), spending 73 percent of its airtime on discussing DPP legislator Lin Chung-mo's (林重謨) tirade against independent legislator-elect Sisy Chen (陳文茜) and Chu Mei-feng's sex-VCD scandal.
"It's ironic for the show, especially when it looks at itself as a leading program," the report says.
The TAUP's report denounced daily newspaper reports in both November and December.
The TAUP, which acts as a newspaper watchdog group, criticized newspapers' aggressive coverage of the sex-VCD scandal for raising the gravity of the incident to a nationwide level.
"Even though Scoop Weekly was the only magazine circulating the VCD publicly, coverage by other media organizations based on commercial interests was the main factor that made the incident more significant than it is," the report said.
Also, the report criticized papers for playing the roles of police, judges and prosecutors by making judgements before all the facts were in.
In its observation on November news coverage, the report said daily newspaper reports frequently lacked confirmation of information and balance in their news reports in the run-up to the Dec. 1 legislative and local elections.
"Some newspapers and reporters expressed their stances in their reports and layouts, which made the election news unbalanced," the report says.
Meanwhile, the ECPAT report said that the search engine on the Yahoo Taiwan Web site offered the most "inappropriate information" compared with other local search engines.
The ECPAT defines "inappropriate information" as that which violates the Anti-Sexual Business Provisions for Children and Teenagers (兒童及青少年性交易防治條例) and Criminal Law.
Finally, the Mothers Observing Media Association concluded that, of the four terrestrial TV networks, CTV's entertainment shows feature the largest amount of violent and pornographic behavior as well as the most privacy violations.
The TAA was founded in May last year. It started commissioning the four associations in June to observe the media's performance.
‘TOO TIRED’: The former mayor’s political party said that he had been questioned for nearly 19 hours, so he declined to be questioned at night, as he felt exhausted Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was arrested early yesterday morning after being questioned by prosecutors over his alleged role in a corruption scandal concerning the Core Pacific City redevelopment project during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The arrest was made after Ko refused to be questioned at night and attempted to leave the prosecutors’ office, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Prosecutors were worried that he would collude with others involved in the case to make false statements if they allowed him to leave, so they issued an order to arrest him, the office said. Ko yesterday sought a court
ECONOMIC RESILIENCE: Only 11.4 percent of Taiwan’s overseas investments last year were in China, and businesses are dispersing their investments elsewhere, Lai said China’s ambition to annex Taiwan is based on a desire to change the rules-based international order, rather than a desire for territorial gains, President William Lai (賴清德) said in an interview. During an appearance on the talk show The View With Catherine Chang, aired last night, Lai said China aimed to achieve hegemony, and that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was an issue of worldwide concern. During the interview, Lai also discussed his “four-pillar plan” for peace and prosperity, which he first outlined in an article published by the Wall Street Journal on July 4 last year. That
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)
RSS