CtiTV gave 70% of May airtime to Han Kuo-yu

By Liu Li-jen and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA





CtiTV News (中天新聞) dedicated 70 percent of its airtime in May to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.

The commission conducted an audit of news reporting by 11 media companies in May, finding that nine of them reported most frequently on Han, it said yesterday.

Taiwan Television (台視), China Television (中視), Chinese Television System (華視), Next TV (壹電視), Era News (年代新聞), EBC News (東森), CtiTV, Formosa Television (民視), Sanlih Entertainment Television (三立), TVBS and Global News (寰宇新聞) were all audited, it said.

The NCC conducted the audit between May 21 and 27, from 12pm to 1pm and 7pm to 8pm daily, NCC Department of Broadcasting and Content specialist Chen Shu-ming (陳書銘) said.

CtiTV dedicated the most airtime to Han, and it gave 60 percent more airtime to Han than to its next most-broadcast politicians, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the NCC said, adding that Ko and Tsai each received about 9 percent of CtiTV’s airtime.

Taiwan Television allocated most of its airtime to Ko and Chinese Television System focused mostly on former premier William Lai (賴清德), while the other stations focused predominantly on Han, he said.

TVBS also gave the second-greatest amount of airtime to Ko, allocating him about 20 percent, the NCC said.

In March, the NCC gave CtiTV a deadline to effect improvements, included providing more balanced reporting of politicians, it said.

Meanwhile, a report yesterday in Britain’s Financial Times said that reporting by CtiTV was one-sided in favor of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and that it did not report on national news related to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), such as her visit to diplomatic allies in the Caribbean.

CtiTV and other media outlets under the Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時集團) received instructions directly from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, the Times quoted a CtiTV reporter as saying, on condition of anonymity.

“They call every day. They don’t meddle in everything, mainly topics related to cross-strait relations and to China. They have a say in the angle of the story and whether it goes on the front page,” the reporter said.

The Times said China plans to have Han Kuo-yu elected and has enlisted Taiwanese media to help.

Han has rejected the allegations, but there is evidence that Want Want is behind his campaign, such as when it sent reporters and editorial managers to Kaohsiung before the mayoral election in November last year, the paper said.