A Taipei city councilor and a politician from the pan-green camp yesterday criticized Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for expressing support for CTiTV News, which lost its operating license last year after a series of violations.
The channel has since moved its programming to YouTube.
Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) of the Social Democratic Party said that she over the weekend received an online link to a video and had her office team authenticate it.
Photo courtesy of Taipei City Government
In the video Ko says: “CTiTV News has turned into Taiwan’s biggest news YouTuber, in keeping up the work to scrutinize the government, reporting on the pulse of society and giving voice to the common people.”
“You can change the network’s TV channel, but there is no concession on news media’s professionalism and its soul,” Ko says as the video cuts to a CTiTV news program, making it seem like an endorsement from the mayor.
Miao yesterday said Ko has once again reversed his stance, as he had said during a number of news controversies in 2019 that “when Taiwan has such media [CTiTV], who needs enemies?”
After verifying the video as genuine, Miao posted it on social media, where it circulated widely, leading many people to say Ko has shown his true colors “in support of red [Chinese] media.”
CTiTV News is considered to have a pro-China stance.
An Internet user addressed members of Ko’s Taiwan People’s Party: “This man has changed his political stances so many times, why do you still support him?”
The pro-independence Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday said that Ko has ambitions to run for president and is courting voters from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and other pan-blue camp parties.
“Just last month, when asked about political figures using their special privilege to get vaccine shots at Taipei clinics, Ko said that Taiwan will not have peace unless it gets rid of all political talk shows. However, he now endorses CTiTV,” Taiwan Statebuilding Party official Chang Po-yang (張博洋) said.
CTiTV News was repeatedly found to have fabricated news reports and spread rumors, Chang said, giving as an example the false report in 2019 that 2 million tonnes of pomeloes had been dumped into the Tzengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫) in Tainan.
The report insinuated that the Tainan City Government had been negligent in its duties and had not been caring for local farmers. The report came during a legislative election campaign as the KMT vied for control of the local government.
Chang said this is a well-known piece of fabricated news originating from a CTiTV political talk show.
The National Communications Commission later ruled that the report was fabricated news and fined the channel NT$1 million (US$35,823 at the current exchange rate), he added.
“This news network was one of the main sources causing disturbance in Taiwanese society. Now Ko is fully endorsing it. Does this not mean Ko is supporting the spreading of rumors and fake news ?” Chang said.
“Through the years, we have seen very clear that Ko plays politics for his own interests,” he said.
“What is Ko’s core value? The answer is that he would support anything that can cause harm to Taiwan. Ko has no limit as to what he is willing to do,” Chang said, citing Ko’s remark that “the two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait are one family,” his “vilification” of the government’s efforts to obtain vaccines and trying to sabotage Taiwan-US relations.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Several major reservoirs are estimated to have received 590 million tonnes of water inflow from June 4 to this morning, with storage levels at Wushantou Reservoir exceeding 50 percent and Zengwen Reservoir approaching 30 percent as of 9am today, data from the Water Resources Agency showed. Of the estimated 590 million tonnes, 450 million have already been stored in reservoirs, the data showed. As of 9am today, Baoshan Reservoir storage levels reached 100 percent, while Baoshan Second Reservoir, Yongheshan Reservoir and Techi Reservoir all exceeded 90 percent, data on the Water Resources Agency’s Web site showed. In addition, the Shimen Reservoir is at
BAIT AND SWITCH: Allowing KMT-run counties to sell to China while the threat of abrupt cancelations hangs overhead is another form of coercion, officials said Beijing is using agricultural purchase offers announced during the Straits Forum to deepen Taiwan’s dependence on the Chinese market, a Taiwanese official said yesterday as they criticized the Taitung County commissioner’s participation in the initiative. During the Straits Forum held in Xiamen on Saturday, Chinese officials announced a sales and purchase agreement for agricultural products from some counties led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴), who was barred from attending the event in person by the Mainland Affairs Council, participated via video. Under the agreement, China would purchase atemoyas, pomeloes, tea and grouper harvested in Taitung,
EXCUSES: Beijing is using government and research vessels as a pretext to harass the nation and enter its EEZ, and engage in ‘hegemonic expansion,’ the coast guard said The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said it drove away Chinese oceanographic research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 (向陽紅33) from restricted waters after warning it that it was in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Chinese vessel entered restricted waters off the coast of Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) at 11:35pm on Thursday, the coast guard said, adding that it dispatched the Lanyu patrol vessel and the boat PP-10077 to shadow the Chinese ship and issue radio warnings ordering it to leave. China has no sovereignty over waters off Taiwan’s east coast, Lanyu’s crew told Xiang Yang Hong 22 over the radio, and demanded
RSS