False Taiwan TV invasion report leads to resignations, investigation
- Taipei-based broadcaster CTS apologises again for alarming its morning viewers with ticker feeds of war and natural disasters
- Two senior managers have resigned and the company promises a comprehensive review of what went wrong
Their resignations on Friday follow an apology by CTS for its erroneous broadcasts on Wednesday in its morning news programme. The station said it mistakenly ran war and disaster prevention messages from a video recorded earlier and there was no need for panic.
The false ticker items included “on the brink of war”, “vessel explodes in Taipei harbour, facilities and ships destroyed”, and “New Taipei City hit by PLA ground force missiles”.
Other factually incorrect headlines found later included “heavy hail fell in capital Taipei”, “a volcano in northern Taiwan erupted” as well as “new oilfields found in the basal channel”.
On Friday – after harsh criticism from lawmakers prompted a management review – CTS apologised again and announced a comprehensive investigation, as well as the resignations of TBS board chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou and CTS acting general manager Chen Ya-ling.
CTS is part of Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS), a public broadcasting group established in 2006 and partly funded by the government. For years, the TBS group has struggled with budget issues and the ruling party’s influence on management.