The Public Television Service Foundation yesterday announced plans to review content on its PeoPo online platform, as controversy continued over a self-styled citizen reporter filming videos insulting elderly waishengren (外省人, Mainlander) — people who fled to Taiwan from China with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 1949 after its defeat in the Chinese Civil War.
Videos showing Hung Su-chu (洪素珠), a citizen reporter who joined the platform in November 2008, accusing elderly waishengren of “gnawing on the bones” of Taiwanese and telling them to “go back” to China, has attracted a firestorm of criticism on social media.
Public Television Service Foundation chairman Shao Yu-ming (邵玉銘) said the foundation plans to invite experts to discuss management of content on the PeoPo platform, adding the platform would not screen reports beforehand, but would address its content.
The platform was established by the foundation in 2007 to encourage citizens to create digital reports on public affairs, and has close to 8,900 registered “citizen reporters” who have submitted nearly 110,000 reports.
While Hung’s controversial videos are not currently on the platform, she has 2,756 other reports uploaded under her handle “Susu” (素素), focusing mainly on politics and cross-strait relations.
National Chung Cheng University professor of communications Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝) said that while the value and significance of citizen reporters should not be negated, her case presents an opportunity for societal reflection.
Citizen reporters deserve respect for representing certain voices absent from the mainstream media, but they should not enjoy any special privileges to distort the truth or randomly yell at people, he said.
Citizen reporters who step over moral and legal lines have to face consequences such as social criticism and legal responsibility just like professional reporters, he said.
Meanwhile, Hung, who has said on Facebook that her father was also waishengren, left her Kaohsiung home on Friday evening after calling police to report suspicious people loitering outside the building.
The exterior of her home was egged twice yesterday, with people shouting and kicking on the door. Police have increased patrols and are considering deploying a plainclothes officer outside her residence.
The Taiwan Civil Government’s office — a political group that advocates the government in Taipei is not legitimate, with which Hung is reportedly affiliated — was also egged, with burial joss paper littering its entrance in protest. The group has disavowed Hung’s comments as inappropriate.
Additional reporting by Huang Liang-chieh and Wu Jen-chieh
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS