Television stations will face heavier punishment starting on May 1 if their programs are found to repeatedly commit the same violation, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
Director of the NCC’s Communication Content Department Jason Ho (何吉森) said the new policy came about after the NCC received a huge number of complaints from viewers about a preview for Formosa TV’s (民視) prime time series Night Market Life (夜市人生) in which the lead actress Chen Mei-fong (陳美鳳) was shown being kidnapped and hung over a fire. In the same scene, she was forced to wear a string of firecrackers around her neck.
Ho called the producers of the series yesterday to relay viewers’ concerns. They producers decided to drop the scene.
An earlier Formosa prime time series, Mom’s House (娘家), was fined repeatedly by the NCC for product placement and scenes of violence and sexual abuse.
Lin Huei-ling (林慧玲), a specialist with the NCC, said the new policy will take into account the number of violations a station has committed over the preceding two years.
The NCC will consider the station’s past performance and add a maximum of 15 points to a review in the event that it continually violates the same regulation. The NCC uses a points scale to determine the penalty a station should pay if programs violate media laws. The higher the tally, the higher the penalties.
“The new policy hopes to reinforce self-regulation within the media and in the meantime restrict the administrative authority of the commission,” Lin said.
In related news, NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) said yesterday that the Public Television Service (PTS) should be funded by the government, rather than the Cable Television Fund.
The NCC recently approved an amendment to the Cable Television Act (有線電視法) that states that 60 percent of the Cable Television Fund should go to the central government and 40 percent to fund local government.
Currently, 30 percent of the fund goes to the central government, 30 percent is used to subsidize the operation of PTS and the rest goes to local government.
“The PTS is a terrestrial television service, and we have to consider whether it is appropriate to use the money collected from the cable television service to fund the operations of a terrestrial television service,” Chen said.
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