About 700 people yesterday protested in front of the CtiTV (中天電視) building in Taipei, calling on Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) to apologize for leading what they called an “unprofessional media group” and to return to his old business of selling rice crackers.
The protesters were mainly members of the Anti-Media Monster Youth Alliance, which is composed of 30 student clubs from several universities. Teachers, journalists and regular working people also showed up, adding to the mix of placards and posters.
Alliance spokesperson Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), who is also the chairperson of National Taiwan University’s Graduate Student Association, said the media outlets in the Want Want China Times Group used tremendous resources to attack Academia Sinica associate research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), an outspoken media expert who opposes Want Want’s acquisition of cable TV services owned by China Network Systems (CNS, 中嘉網路).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lin Fei-fan said Want Want media outlets had alleged that Huang paid students to protest in front of the National Communications Commission on Wednesday last week when commissioners granted conditional approval to the Want Want-CNS deal.
China Times Weekly deputy editor-in-chief Lin Chao-hsin (林朝鑫) threatened to sue a student who accused him of being the instigator of the student protests last week.
“The Want Want China Times Group should stop its attacks [on Huang and the students],” Lin Fei-fan said. “We ask Tsai to apologize to the public because the media group has become a terrible and second-rate institution under his leadership. We also ask the new NCC commissioners to revoke the commission’s ruling on the Want Want-CNS deal and review the case again. They must not allow such terrible media to continue to exist in Taiwan.”
In response, CtiTV spokesperson Huang Chun-ren (黃俊仁) reiterated that students had been paid to join the protest, and that the Want Want China Times Group had never said that Huang Kuo-chang was the real organizer of the student protest.
Huang Chun-ren said their reports were not meant to tarnish anyone’s reputation, but rather to make the point that paid social movements should be scrutinized.
The Want Want China Times Group was also victimized by false rumors and it simply wants to find out the truth, Huang Chun-ren said.
In related news, thousands of Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) Union workers protested in front of the commission’s headquarters yesterday because a proposed amendment to the Telecommunications Act (電信法) would force Chunghwa to relinquish control of “last mile” operations, allowing other telecoms operators to take over.
The “last mile” refers to the final leg of telecommunications connectivity from a communication service provider to a customer.
The commission’s proposed amendment would require Chunghwa Telecom to charge other carriers using the last mile at prices reflecting only its costs. If that move fails to facilitate competition in the telecommunications market, the government could ask Chunghwa to spin off last mile facilities into separate business entities.
The union said that many fixed-network operators had entered the market since the government privatized operations at Chunghwa Telecom.
However, the infrastructure for fixed-telecom networks had not expanded as a result, the union said.
The union said the commission should ask other telecoms operators to build infrastructure, not just Chunghwa Telecom. The government also sold the last mile to Chunghwa when it wanted to turn it into a private firm, the union said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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