The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday that its newly drafted telecommunication and communications law would ban media coverage of any comments that discriminate by ethnicity or by gender.
The draft law still needs the approval of both the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan.
The law also requires media organizations to establish a mechanism whereby independent advisors review the content of news programs and evaluate whether professional journalistic practices have been adhered to.
Associations comprised of media organizations will also be required to put in place regulations requiring their members to exercise "self-discipline."
NCC spokesperson Howard Shyr (石世豪) said yesterday that the main purpose of the law was to decrease direct governmental control over media content and strengthen the functions of media organizations' internal regulations.
Shyr said the commission remained the legal supervisor of the news media, and it would in future monitor the news media through an independent panel entrusted by the commission to review reported cases.
Shyr said that political rallies and conflicts should be reported, but the coverage should not be sensationalized and news reporters should follow professional journalistic practices.
"A large amount of news is often turned into something else after being edited," he said. "Too often irrelevant and often unnecessary headlines are added to the news that convey more than just the facts."
Shyr said the US and European countries have had similar regulations in place for years, adding that both discrimination by gender or ethnicity are deemed beyond the realm of freedom of speech.
The proposed law also plans to allow overseas investors to acquire stakes in local television broadcasters for the first time.
The commission has proposed two separate solutions for the Executive Yuan to review.
The first would allow overseas investors to own up to 20 percent of a broadcaster and up to 60 percent of a cable or satellite service provider. The second sets no limit on overseas investment in cable and satellite service providers.
Currently the limit for overseas investors' stakes in service providers is set at 60 percent.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
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