The management of Mirror TV yesterday told the National Communications Commission (NCC) that it would not host any political talk shows during prime-time viewing hours once the channel is established, adding that it would retain a full-time ombudsman to monitor news quality.
The commission yesterday began reviewing an application filed in December 2019 by Mirror Media, which also owns a Chinese-language weekly magazine, to establish a TV news channel.
It ruled that it would resume deliberations after the channel provides additional information requested by commissioners.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
Mirror Media president Pei Wei (裴偉) and National Chengchi University adjunct professor Weng Shieu-chi (翁秀琪) visited the commission yesterday morning to answer questions about the application, NCC Deputy Chairman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) said.
NCC commissioners and the media group’s management discussed several issues, including the plan to recruit Weng as a full-time ombudsman to monitor the channel’s news programs.
“Weng told us that she accepted the job after reading the channel’s business plan, adding that she loves challenges and is interested in establishing an ombudsman system,” Wong said.
Weng said that as an ombudsman she would be a mentor, communicator and coach, and her job would be to ensure that the channel follows media regulations by verifying the authenticity of information before airing it, he said.
NCC commissioners asked if the ombudsman system could function as Weng has planned, as a similar system was unsuccessfully executed in CTi News before the commission rejected its license renewal last year.
The ombudsman at CTi News, Shih Hsin University vice president Chen Ching-ho (陳清河), testified in an administrative hearing last year that he did not have time to watch all of the channel’s programs and would only give advice from time to time.
Chen assumed a part-time position, but Weng has been offered a full-time position and would have an office and two assistants, Wong said.
Mirror Media’s news channel and weekly magazine would operate separately and have different shareholders, board directors and supervisors, Wong said.
Audio-visual content currently shown on the weekly magazine’s Web site would not be aired on the television channel, he said.
Meanwhile, the group plans to increase the number of employees at the news channel to 450. So far, it has recruited about 200 staff, including 41 people who were previously working at the magazine.
Unlike other local news channels, Mirror TV would not air political talk shows between 8pm and 10pm, Mirror Media told commissioners, adding that it would broadcast investigative reports during prime-time hours instead.
The channel would also devote a large part of its programming to reports on art and entertainment, international news and issues concerning children and teenagers.
The group said that the new news channel would be available on cable, as well as Chunghwa Telecom’s multimedia-on-demand (MOD) system.
In other news, the commission has yet to rule on Eastern Broadcasting Co’s application to have three of its channels that were airing overseas broadcast on the MOD system.
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