The campaign office of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday accused television news channels of being associated with either the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and that they have become a weapon to attack political rivals.
Showing a statistics table complied during prime time (8pm to 10pm) from Wednesday to Friday last week, TPP legislator at-large candidate Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that EBC News promoted KMT presidential candidate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and his running mate, Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), the most, and hardly even mentioned Ko or his running mate, Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈).
In those three days, EBC News broadcast eight positive stories on the Hou-Jaw ticket, three stories — two positive and one negative — on DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and his running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), and only one negative story about the Ko-Wu team, the table showed.
Photo: Huang Tzu-yang, Taipei Times
EBC News on Wednesday even ran a story directly praising Hou and spent 2 minutes, 45 seconds reporting about him, while there were no stories at all about Ko, Huang said.
He also said that SET News (三立新聞) has become an attacker for the DPP, with the table showing that on Thursday and Friday last week the news channel broadcast 21 stories — 13 negative and eight neutral — on the Hou-Jaw ticket, 16 stories — 13 positive and three neutral — on the Lai-Hsiao ticket, and only six stories — two positive, two negative and two neutral — about the Ko-Wu ticket.
On Friday, SET News spent 22 minutes, 31 seconds reporting on negative news about the DPP’s political rivals, Huang said.
He said that the channels have breached Article 46 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) — which stipulates that TV channels should treat all the candidates in a fair and just manner.
TPP legislator-at-large candidate Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), Ko’s campaign manager, said many news stories about the TPP had been blocked by the media outlet’s editors.
The TPP ran a crowdfunding campaign to run an ad on EBC News, but was told that the advertising agency on Nov. 8 last year received a call from the TV station saying that its management had instructed it not to accept it, she said.
She also said that property developer Chang Kao-hsiang (張高祥), the owner of EBC News, had in March last year offered her three options — to become Hou’s running mate, run in the New Taipei City mayoral by-election if Hou steps down or become a minister.
EBC News said it would not respond to false accusations.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS