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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 NCC to stress fact-checking in evaluations
A Next TV satellite news truck stands outside a police station in Changhua County on March 13 last year. Photo: Yen Hung-chun, Taipei Times
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The National Communications Commission （NCC） yesterday said that it would list fact verification and maintaining the principle of fairness as the most important criteria in evaluating TV news channels’ performance and license renewal applications.
Article No. 27, Paragraph 2 of the Satellite Broadcasting Act （衛星廣播電視法） stipulates that broadcasted news and comments “shall pay attention to fact verification and principles of fairness.”
The commission already uses the requirements to gauge if and how a TV news channel enforces its internal control mechanisms and exerts self-restraint, NCC spokesperson Wong Po-tsung （翁柏宗） said.
The agency’s evaluation of a news channel’s enforcement of its internal controls was previously only one of the criteria it used to determine if it would pass a performance evaluation or could renew its operational license, he said.
“However, commissioners want to increase the weight of a news channel’s scores in fact verification and fair reporting, as they want to see more of the commission’s policies realized in the way it evaluates a channel’s performance,” Wong said.
A news channel would not be given a passing grade in its overall performance review if it has been fined by the commission multiple times for failing to effectively enforce its internal controls, particularly if it fails to thoroughly fact-check information or produce fair coverage, Wong said.
News channels that fail the performance evaluation would be asked to address the issue within a designated period of time, he said, adding that failure to improve by the deadline would incur a fine of NT$200,000 to NT$2 million （US$6,491 to US$64,908）.
The decision has nothing to do with the Executive Yuan’s efforts to crack down on fake news or its plan to launch a government-sponsored media credibility survey, Wong said.
Although the commission has been charged with administering the media credibility survey, Wong said that it has yet to begin to discuss the matter.
Based on the Executive Yuan’s plan, the survey would cover not only broadcast media, but also the press and online media. The NCC only regulates broadcast media.
Meanwhile, Formosa TV’s and TVBS’ news channels were each fined NT$400,000 for contravening the Television Programs Classification Handling Regulations （電視節目分級處理辦法） when they aired images of a man torturing his cat on their evening news programs on Sept. 9 and Sept. 10. The programs have a “general” rating.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
