TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan’s CTi News (中天電視) was fined NT$500,000 (US$16,000) by the broadcasting industries regulator National Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday (June 19), citing its failure to meet requirements.

An NCC committee ruled that CTi, the news channel owned by the pro-China, China Times Media Group, failed to redress operational flaws within the designated period of time. CTi is required to establish an “independent review” system, reported ETToday.

Taiwan legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) of the New Power Party visited NCC on Tuesday (June 18), demanding the regulator strip CTi News (中天電視) of its license.

According to Huang, CTi has failed to fulfil the pledges it made when it sought to have its broadcast permit renewed in 2014, reported Apple Daily. CTi was said to have agreed it would redress a number of flaws that some members of the review committee members cited as reasons to disqualify the news channel.

The measures included establishing an independent review panel, enhancing personnel training, and including civil groups in the company’s ethics commission. 

CTi has been fined NT$1 million twice this year. The TV channel incurred the penalties for reports NCC considered groundless, one of them being alleged government interference in a trip to Singapore by Kaohsiung Mayor Kao Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).