Lawmakers from the pan-green camp yesterday cited the need to protect democracy from fabricated news as they endorsed the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) decision not to renew the operating license of CTi News.
“Media is the fourth estate as the fourth power in a democracy and has the right to protect freedom of expression. However, this freedom must not be used to produce and circulate ‘fake’ news, which they [CTi News] have done so many times and fined by the NCC following investigations. People can look up the many cases of CTi News’ violations,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) said.
“Right now Taiwan has a powerful neighboring country intending to annex us, so Taiwan must take up ‘defensive democracy,’” Lin said, referring to China. “To protect our precious freedom and democracy, we have to concede some rights.”
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
“Using disinformation and ‘fake’ news to sabotage our political system is not the intended aim of the protection of the freedom of expression,” she said.
“On the contrary, not renewing the license for CTi News works for the protection of Taiwan’s freedom and democracy,” she said.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) wrote on Facebook that the NCC’s review was based on professional media standards, which have remained the same regardless of who is in power — the DPP, or the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
“Television network channels are public property and operating licenses are renewed after a six-year period. Its the same for every television outlet. The NCC is an independent body, with procedures and standards for its assessments, and some outlets might fail the assessments with below-par scores. The process and the result can be subjected to public scrutiny,” Wang said.
The NCC in 2010 rejected the license renewal application of ERA TV, as it had repeatedly contravened the rules by using embedded advertising, as well as other offenses.
“Now the NCC has decided not to renew the license for CTi News. It is also based on the same standards and assessment procedures. The process has not changed, and it is the same whether we have the DPP or the KMT in power,” Wang said.
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) said that people have seen the background of the NCC’s decision.
There are foreign forces behind CTi News that aim to destabilize and cause strife in Taiwanese society, Chen said.
China aims to annex Taiwan, and it penetrates into the media and many other sectors of our society, he added.
“My party and I are now relieved that Taiwanese no longer have to put up with a TV news station producing and circulating ‘fake’ news with a disregard for ethics and professionalism in journalism. We are happy that people do not have to tolerate any more of CTi News’ actions to create social conflict,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater