Culture ministry held responsible for fake CTS missile, earthquake ticker warning

• Wu Suwei, Jonathan Qing / Staff reporters and staff writers

Control Yuan has accused the Ministry of Culture of failing to oversee after several high-profile errors in the news ticker of China’s partially publicly owned television system (CTS). did.

Control Yuan members Lai Ting Ming, Ye Yitsu, and Lin Yuyong are leading the regulator’s CTS investigation, and on Thursday the accusations came after the Control Yuan’s culture and education. said. The committee approved the findings.

From April 20 to May 13, the news channel made seven mistakes in its news ticker, including falsely announcing that Chinese missiles and an earthquake hit New Taipei City, and blackmailed Prime Minister Su Zhenchang. identified as the country’s president, they said. .

Photo: Hsieh Chunling, Taipei Times

The ticker also displays the erroneous logo of the U.S. Major League Baseball team, incorrectly names President Tsai Ing-wen (Tsai Ing-wen) as Tsai EE (Tsai EE), and adds “United States” to the former Taiwanese vice president’s title. , the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Shanghai is wrong, they said.

An investigation launched by the Interior Ministry’s Investigation Bureau found no evidence that foreigners had intervened at the station, and the Taipei District Public Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the mistake was not a crime, Lai and Lin said.

The false message about missiles and earthquakes stemmed from joint emergency response exercises in the city that did not follow standard operating procedures, they said, citing city reports.

Twenty-two CTS employees have been punished for these mistakes, they added.

The ministry was asked to improve oversight of the Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation, which is responsible for managing CTS, they said.

The Control Board issued a report in 2014 detailing the channel’s ambiguous legal status and operational deficiencies as the Ministry of Internal Affairs called for the CTS issue to be resolved, but the complaint was ignored. they said.

In a report issued on May 25, the ministry acknowledged various problems with the CTS. Among these are rigid organizational systems, formalism in hiring practices, understaffing, lack of professionalism, unclear accountability and reliance on analog technology.

Citing reports, members of Controlyuan said there had been little change in the channel following the regulator’s warning.

The National Telecommunications Commission, which fined CTS, will need to link compliance with licensing assessments to ensure channels implement reforms, Lai and Lin said.

Television companies are being urged to see CTS as an example of the consequences of not modernizing and to review their internal mechanisms for surveillance and standard operating procedures for news broadcasts, legislators said.

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