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TAIPEI – A pro-China cable TV station was taken off the air after Taiwan’s media regulator found it had failed to address the findings of bias and misinformation and refused to renew its license.
Chung Tien Television (CTi) was removed from the cable television network in Taiwan on Friday (December 11), the day its license expired.
Before going off the air, CTi, which was among the most viewed cable news stations in Taiwan, aired a 42-hour marathon live stream of its hosts and presenters chatting about their experiences working for CTi and its 26-year history. of transmission.
The station is owned by Want Want China Times Media Group, which also owns pro-China newspaper The China Times and snack maker Want Want.
Want Want’s leadership is known for being critical of President Tsai Ing-wen’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and company-owned media produces coverage that leans toward China.
The National Taiwan Communications Commission (NCC) announced on November 18 that it had unanimously decided not to renew CTi’s broadcast license, effectively closing it.
NCC Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang said CTi had repeatedly violated broadcast regulations, and viewers’ complaints to the commission grew over the past three years.
Last year alone, CTi was the subject of more than 960 public complaints to the regulator, or about 30 percent of all complaints about television programming, he added.
Chen also underscored the lack of balanced reporting, saying Want Want chairman Tsai Eng-meng meddled in the station’s news production.
Tsai has long been an advocate for the unification of Taiwan with China.
He is the second richest man in Taiwan with a fortune of 5.6 billion dollars (7.6 billion Singapore dollars), after Foxconn founder Terry Gou, with 6.1 billion dollars, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
CTi News received a lot of public attention in the weeks leading up to Taiwan’s presidential election on January 11 this year, when many viewers noted that the channel devoted much of its coverage praising pro-China candidate Han Kuo-yu. He focused on details like his demeanor, the way he dressed, and the jokes he made.
The NCC’s decision to take CTi off the air may be the most severe sanction a local media outlet has received due to its ties to China, but it is not the first time that the “red media”, or media with a tendency to China, make headlines. .
In June last year, more than 100,000 people marched in Taipei to protest against the “red media” that leaned too far toward China’s political views. The protesters included lawmakers from Ms. Tsai’s DPP, outside legislators and politicians, teachers, and Internet influencers.
The participation resulted in discussions in Parliament the following week, as DPP lawmakers proposed amending the laws governing cross-strait relations and media laws to prevent China from meddling in Taiwan’s news production.
CTi responded to the NCC, saying the decision was politically motivated, which the NCC president dismissed.
Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), a friend of China, supported CTi, and KMT President Johnny Chiang protested against “dirtying” the license renewal decision with political interference.
A week after the NCC’s decision, CTi applied for a court order, but it was rejected by the court. The station said Monday it will file an appeal, but no appeal had been filed as of Friday.
After the expiration of its license, CTi’s content can still be streamed on online platforms such as YouTube, the NCC said.
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