TAIPEI: A group of lawmakers, with the support of a civil group, is moving to revise a series of laws to ban sensational animated news on television, websites and in other media.

The mass-circulating China Times said yesterday that the Social Welfare Committee and the Environment and Health Committee of the Legislative Yuan began debating a proposal Wednesday to ban "any detailed description of tools and methods used to commit crimes and suicides."

In a response to the recent controversy over animated graphic news published by the Apple Daily, the proposal will also prohibit "graphic animated news that includes bloody or obscene images of violence, sex, or horror."

In order to institute the ban, three acts that govern broadcast and television, satellite broadcast and television, and children and teenagers welfare, will have to be revised.

Kuomintang Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu, who sponsored the proposal along with KMT lawmakers Alex Hrong-tai Fai and Shyu Jong-shyoung, said the use of graphic images to reconstruct crime stories serves only to reopen the wounds of the victims and their family members.

"It tramples on the privacy of the victims, debauches the society and goes against the morals and ethics of journalism," Hung was quoted in the China Times as saying.

"Action News," as it is called by Apple Daily, is not news at all, she added.

"In order to prevent other media from following the lead of the Apple Daily, an absolute ban should be imposed," Hung said.

A similar proposal was submitted by the Children Welfare League, through Kuomintang lawmakers Shyu Jong-shyoung, Huang Ho Tsai-feng and Lin Hung-chih, and was also debated at the meeting.

The Apple Daily's Action News is usually published on its website and is also accessible by mobile phone.

After it incurred two fines of NT$500,000 ($15,547) each in two days, the newspaper on November 28 issued an apology and restricted access to its Action News.

The fines were imposed by the Taipei City government on grounds that there were no restrictions for minors, after the "National Communications Commission" (NCC) said it could do nothing about the issue.

Amid the controversy, the Apple Daily group's plans to set up a TV company suffered a setback, as the NCC on Wednesday returned its applications for three television licenses.

NCC Spokesman Chen Cheng-Chang was quoted by the China Times as saying that the Apple Group's "operation proposal," which is part of the application to explain how the TV programs will be presented, was too vague.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/04/2009 page2)