Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) has sanctioned “illegal programmes” and called on local media outlets “to implement professional self-discipline”.

About NT$4.6 million/US$152,000 in fines was levied on offending platforms as a result of the breaches. 

The call, made just before the Lunar New Year holidays, was part of a review that included four cases of “impairing public order and good customs”, four of “damage to public interests due to failure to implement fact verification”, and two of “harming children’s physical and mental health”. 

The largest fine of NT$3 million/US$99,000 was levied on FTV News and FTV Taiwan, which were hauled over the coals for seven cases, including the "Spicy News 152" programme, which was found to have violated the “principle of fact-checking” as well as crossing other public interest lines. 

For interfering with public order, Taiwan Xinsheng Radio’s "News Firecrackers" programme was fined NT$9,000/US$300. The NCC said host Zhou Yukou used threatening words such as “killing” and “bombing”, which might cause fear as well as “imitation effects”.

Two channels – Sanlih Taiwan and Sanlih Drama – were fined NT600,000/US$20,000 each for "Family Reunion", which “repeatedly included verbal, physical violence, and sexual violence”. 

“Attempted aggression, humiliation, abuse, and obstruction of freedom of movement, and specific descriptions of the abuse methods can easily cause children to imitate or shape children’s wrong values, mistakenly allow violence to resolve disputes, harm children’s physical and mental health, and violate programme classification,” NCC said.

Another case involved the "News Talk Show" programme during which a guest contribution “reached the level of promotion”. The show was fined NT$200,000/US$6,600. 

The NCC said 11 cases were reviewed and dealt with.