Seven Chinese Television System (CTS) employees were disciplined for erroneously running news tickers announcing a Chinese invasion off the coast of northern Taiwan during its morning news program on Wednesday, the network said yesterday.
The news alerts were created by the New Taipei City Fire Department for disaster drill purposes. CTS apologized for the error in a statement on Wednesday, saying that the mistake occurred due to the oversight of a program director who was tasked to shoot a disaster drill video for the New Taipei City Fire Department.
The employee failed to restore the text file path of the screen layout after completing the recording on Tuesday, resulting in the error on the news program, it said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
The CTS ethics committee also convened on Wednesday afternoon for an emergency meeting, in which two program directors, along with five editors and producers, were held accountable for the incident.
The most serious penalty administered by the committee was a major demerit.
CTS acting general manager Chen Ya-ling (陳雅琳), who is currently in quarantine after a visit to the US, yesterday offered her resignation through videoconference in a board meeting of the Taiwan Broadcasting System.
Her resignation offer was rejected by TBS chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀), whose decision was seconded by other directors on the board.
Chen delivered a public apology on the network’s Wednesday evening news program.
“Managers and employees in the news department who were involved in the incident are to be disciplined. As CTS acting general manager, I will accept any reprimand the board administers,” she said.
Chen is to face questions from lawmakers at the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee on Monday morning.
The Investigation Bureau’s Taipei City Field Office and Cybersecurity Investigation Office yesterday interviewed a program director surnamed Chiang (蔣) and a subtitle editor surnamed Liu (劉) to determine if the network’s system had been hacked.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of