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Want Want China Times
apologizes
SINCERE? After accusing an academic of paying
protesters to take to the streets in opposition to a Want Want-CNS deal, the
group said it had no proof he had done so
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) yesterday issued an official apology to
Academia Sinica associate research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), saying it had
verified that Huang had nothing to do with paying students to attend a protest
against Want Want’s acquisition of cable television services owned by China
Network Systems (CNS, 中嘉網路), adding that it felt sorry for all the trouble the
reports had caused him.
The China Times ran a full-page report last month accusing Huang of paying
students to protest against the Want Want-CNS deal, while CtiTV, which also
belongs to the Want Want China Times Group, gave intense coverage to the story.
However, both news outlets denied they had fabricated the news.
The apology was published in the China Times print edition and on its Web page.
“After thorough investigation, we found that professor Huang had nothing to do
with it [paying the student protesters]; the event was organized by someone
else,” the group said in its apology.
“We had expressed severe doubts about the truth of Huang’s comments on the
event, but we never made up any news,” it added. “For all the trouble we have
caused professor Huang with our news reports and criticism, we humbly accept the
public’s criticism and sincerely apologize to professor Huang and other relevant
personnel. We hope the public will continue to supervise and oversee our work.”
The group also criticized Next Media (壹傳媒集團) for accusing it of organizing the
student protest itself in order to frame Huang. It vowed to continue
investigating the incident.
In response, Next Media said Want Want China Times Group’s apology was an
attempt to shift the focus away from the media monopoly it was creating with its
planned acquisition of CNS’ cable television services.
Huang said in a statement yesterday that he could not sense any sincerity in the
group’s apology.
“This cheap apology cannot remove the damage caused by low-class reporting,”
said Huang, who is currently studying in the US on a Fulbright scholarship. “Nor
can it cover the shame of the China Times losing its media qualifications.”
Huang further questioned the type of investigative work that the group had done
to associate him with the student protest. He asked if the group understands
what intentional distortion meant and whether it had adhered to the journalistic
ethics of honesty, fairness, integrity and decency.
He also demanded to know who in the group’s higher management gave the order to
rewrite reporters’ stories and launch a massive mudslinging campaign against
him, and whether these managers had been held responsible.
“All the incidents that have happened have strengthened my belief that Mr Tsai
Eng-meng (蔡衍明) [Want Want China Times Group chairman] is not qualified to manage
the media [as a monopoly]. If Mr Tsai refuses to withdraw from the management of
the media, we will mobilize the power of civic society to ask him to leave,” he
said.
In other developments, Want Want China Times Group yesterday also denied that it
intended to make TransAsia Airways chairman Vincent Lin (林明昇) the trustee of
CtiTV as a way to fulfill the conditions determined by the National
Communications Commission (NCC) when it granted conditional approval to the Want
Want-CNS deal.
For the approval to take effect, Tsai and his son, Tsai Shao-chung (蔡紹中), are
required to completely dissociate themselves from the operation of CtiTV.
Meanwhile, China Television’s (CTV) digital news channel must be changed to a
non-news channel. CTV must also have an independent editorial review system.
Each of the three conditions must be met for the ruling to take effect.
A report published in this week’s Next Magazine said Lin was chosen as the CtiTV
trustee because he was a friend of Tsai Shao-chung. The report said Lin had
agreed to be the trustee for a year and the information was from “a reliable
source.”
Tsai Shao-chung’s special assistant, Chao Yu-pei (趙育培), said the report was
unfounded.
“As a stakeholder, we are studying different legal ways to handle [the ruling],”
he said.
NCC spokesperson Wei Shyue-win (魏學文) said the commission had yet to receive any
official document on this matter from the group. Whether the group has fulfilled
any of these three conditions must be determined at the NCC commissioners
meeting, he said.
Andy Shieh (謝煥乾), director of the commission’s legal department, said the ruling
had stated that all the major investors of Want Want China Broadband (旺中寬頻),
including Tsai Eng-meng, Tsai Shao-chung, Gary Wang (王令麟) and Tsai Cheng-yu
(蔡鎮宇), must not directly or indirectly manage or control CtiTV. Any corporate
investor or person related to them is banned from doing so as well.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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