Taiwanese TV station apologises for falsely reporting attack from mainland China
- Chinese Television System ran a ticker tape saying that New Taipei City was being struck by missiles and ships had been destroyed
- The broadcaster apologies for the error, saying it mistakenly broadcast captions from a fire service drill
In its morning news broadcast on Wednesday, the government-funded Chinese Television System warned in a series of its news tickers that New Taipei City was under attack.
“New Taipei hit by guided missiles from the Chinese Communist forces. Ships at the Taipei Port [in New Taipei] exploded, facilities and vessels all destroyed,” read one ticker that ran just after 7am under footage of a worker in full Covid-19 gear disinfecting a workplace at the Presidential Office.
There were other latest news ticker alerts that read “Banqiao Railway Station suspected under arson attack by enemy spies with explosives”, “New Taipei Government sets up joint emergency handling centre as war is feared”.
The broadcast continued to flash other warnings, such as “Magnitude-7 powerful quake occurs in Taishan [New Taipei]”, “Quake causes No 2 Nuclear Power to stop operation”, and “Domestic airline plane crash-landed at Keelung River, fuselage breaks into two and many passengers trapped”.
The TV station apologised for the error and said it had accidentally broadcast captions from a fire department emergency drill.
“That was terrible when I watched the CTS news this morning, and I had a moment wondering if it was real, but the Ukraine war and the cross-strait tensions tell me that a PLA attack could happen,” said accountant James Liu who often watches morning TV news before going to work.