SET News and Formosa News have been asked to properly handle viewers’ complaints about their coverage of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), after both news channels were accused of giving biased coverage and failing to verify the claims made by guests on political talk shows, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
Commission Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) attended a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers on the issues related to home shopping channels.
KMT Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) asked Chen if the commission had noticed that some political talk shows spend almost the program focusing on negative coverage about Yen, who is running in a legislative by-election in Taichung’s second electoral district on Jan. 9.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
One of the main reasons that the commission rejected CTi News’ license renewal application last year was the channel’s intensive reporting on former Kaohsiung mayor and KMT presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Hung said.
Hung said he noticed that some of the news channels aired special reports on issues to be voted on in referendums on Saturday last week, with most reports taking positions that favored the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He gave the commission one month to investigate if news channels had received government funding to produce these special reports three months prior to the referendums.
Chen told lawmakers that the commission had as of yesterday received 58 complaints about media coverage of Yen.
“Taichung’s second electoral district has garnered attention nationwide since voters there recalled former Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏維). The commission will not intervene in the production of midday and evening news programs, as well as political talk shows, nor will it dictate the directions of such programs,” Chen said.
Intensive coverage of certain politicians was not the only reason that CTi News’s license was not renewed, Chen said.
“Article 22 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) requires satellite channels to have an independent self-regulatory mechanism that accepts audience appeals related to the accuracy, balance and taste of the broadcast content. As such, television stations should first handle the complaints themselves,” he said.
Stakeholders involved in news events have the right to report to the commission what they think is inaccurate media coverage about them, Chen said.
Media outlets, on the other hand, must not deny their requests for a commensurate opportunity to respond and must not ignore requests for corrections, as per the act, he said.
Forty-five of the 58 complaints were filed by Yen himself, while the other 13 were filed by viewers, NCC Department of Broadcasting and Content Affairs Director Huang Wen-che (黃文哲) said.
“Mr Yen complained that the news and commentaries did not adhere to the fact-verification principle in the act. We have examined some of the content and asked him to be more specific about allegations against him that he deemed to be false,” Huang said.
Last week, the commission notified SET News and Formosa News that their ethics committees must address concerns about biased coverage of politicians, Huang said.
In other news, the commission confirmed that it has since Monday received nine complaints about media coverage of Taiwanese-American singer Wang Leehom (王力宏) and his divorce, with six of them saying that television stations devoted too much time to a domestic dispute.
The other three complaints were about television stations’ alleged contraventions of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), as they used photographs of Wang’s children from Instagram in their broadcasts, it said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to