The CtiTV news channel (中天新聞台) issued a statement late on Wednesday saying that it had decided to punish the host of its political talk show News Tornado (新聞龍捲風), James Tai (戴立綱), as well as the show’s producer, Chang Wan-ling (張婉玲), for airing derogatory comments about female participants in the Sunflower movement, with each given a major demerit.
Meanwhile, the channel said that it would stop inviting Peng Hua-gan (彭華幹), one of the show’s regular guests, to appear on the program.
The news channel made the decision immediately after it was fined NT$500,000 by the National Communications Commission for broadcasting inappropriate comments on the show, over which the commission received about 6,000 complaints from the public.
The channel had previously defended its program, saying that the host and guests used only positive terms to describe the female protesters.
That stance appeared to have softened when the channel said in Wednesday’s statement that it would have an independent reviewer monitor the production of News Tornado in the future.
In addition, the channel said that it would soon establish a special task force formed by the channel’s senior management as well as experts from outside the firm to enhance the quality of its programs, adding that its employees would also receive further education on gender issues, as well as on the importance of equal rights for both genders.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
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