The National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday it will review all the television news coverage from the night before Saturday’s elections and submit those suspected of violating the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) to the Central Election Commission (CEC) for further review.
Jason Ho (何吉森), director of the NCC’s communication content department, said the NCC has received dozens of complaints from the public, accusing some television and radio stations of not covering the campaigns in a fair and objective manner. Some viewers and listeners said that part of the news coverage might have swayed the election results.
“So far, we have submitted the Eight O’Clock News (新聞八點通) and the Taiwan Forum (台灣大論壇), both are CTi programs, to the CEC as they might be infringing on Item 3 of Article 49 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, which says ‘broadcast TV enterprises shall treat the candidates in a fair and just manner and may not perform any discrimination without just cause if any of the candidates is invited for the program or is involved in the election-related report.’”
Ho said Taiwan Forum, hosted by Ping Shiou-lin (平秀琳), covered the shooting of Sean Lien (連勝文), son of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Honorary Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), and the program alternated coverage of the shooting with live broadcasts from campaign rallies for KMT’s Taichung City mayoral candidate Jason Hu (胡志強) and Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
The program appeared to highlight the connection between breaking news and the election, Ho said. Apart from the programs on CTi, Ho said the NCC had received complaints that similar scenarios occurred on several programs on Eastern TV (ETTV, 東森) and China Television Co (CTV, 中視) as well, including Crucial Time (關鍵時刻) on ETTV, CTV’s Breaking News (中視新聞快報) and two other live news broadcasts on ETTV.
One thing they all had in common was that the shooting of Sean Lien was not merely treated as an isolated event and was linked further to the election coverage, he said, adding that CTi’s case was the most serious among them.
Ho said he has ordered his staff to review all the television news coverage on the night before the election, including those produced by SET TV (三立) and Formosa Television (民視). The cases of ETTV and CTV will be sent together with other cases after the commission completes the review, he said. The news coverage on the election eve became the focus of the question-and-answer session at the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, with some of the legislators accusing the media of giving disproportionate coverage to the Lien shooting.
NCC Chairperson Su Herng (蘇蘅) said the NCC will soon invite management from the television stations to review the election coverage.
“The shooting is major breaking news, which the media reported out of duty,” Su said.
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