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CTV’s removal of
remarks on media sparks outrage
By Huang Cheng-yin, Chang Yi- ling and Stacy Hsu / Staff
reporters, with staff writer
China Television Co’s (CTV) controversial removal of remarks against media
monopolization made by Wu Ching-feng (吳青峰), the lead singer of the popular band
Sodagreen (蘇打綠), during his New Year’s Eve performance in Greater Kaohsiung from
its rerun of the festivities continues to brew, with scores of netizens calling
the TV station “shameless and despicable.”
Prior to his performance of Days Without Cigarettes (沒有菸抽的日子), whose lyrics were
written by exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹), at Kaohsiung’s E-da
World theme park on Monday night, Wu expressed his opposition to media
monopolization on stage in front of tens of thousands of fans.
“From my perspective, the media should be an open platform through which the
truth is conveyed, rather than something that attempts to monopolize [the
market] or seeks to manipulate you and me,” Wu said.
However, Wu’s rhetoric was cut from the rerun aired by CTV, which was in charge
of broadcasting the New Year’s Eve celebration.
CTV is one of the many media outlets owned by the pro-China Want Want China
Times Group, which also owns CtiTV and the Chinese-language newspapers Want
Daily, China Times and China Times Weekly.
The media conglomerate was the most contentious buyer in the NT$17.5 billion
(US$600.86 million) acquisition of Next Media Group’s four Taiwanese media
outlets in November due to its already sizeable share of the country’s media
market.
The deal, which is still pending approval by regulatory agencies in Taiwan, has
given rise to grave public concern over media concentration and perceived
increasing Chinese influence over the nation’s media environment.
The TV station’s removal of the anti-trust remarks has caused a public uproar
and met with severe condemnation from netizens, with some describing it as a
“despicable” media outlet for deleting such a minor criticism.
Some also ridiculed the Want Want China Times Group, saying Wu’s remarks
provoked the media giant into perfectly demonstrating the dangers of media
monopolization.
Wang joined in the criticism of CTV on his Facebook page on Tuesday, where he
posted a message that read: “What makes CTV’s deletion of [Wu] Ching-feng’s
anti-media monopoly rhetoric any different from [the reprehensible doings] of
the Chinese Communist Party?”
Wang said the TV station’s conduct self-evidently justified the students
protesting against media monopolization, referring to a spate of demonstrations
consisting mostly of students against the Next Media deal and media
concentration.
“Media is a social instrument of communication. How could you [CTV] just air the
things you want us to see, but leave out the things that we want to see?” Wang
said, adding that there would be no justice if such a media outlet were not
boycotted.
The CTV said the comments were edited out for the one-hour rerun, which was much
shorter than the live broadcast.
The TV station said that it did not cut out any parts of the show for political
purposes.
In addition to issues regarding media monopolization, Wu had previously voiced
support on Sina’s Weibo’s microblogging site for Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a National
Tsing Hua University student who was criticized last month by the
Chinese-language United Daily News as being “rude” in his criticism of Minister
of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧).
“Aren’t those who criticize others as being impolite the distribution centers of
impoliteness themselves?” Wu wrote.
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