Media Weaponized for Smear Campaigns: "Spicy News 152" Heavily Fined by NCC for Unverified Defamation of Chang Shu-chuan

In September 2022, during the election period, the Formosa TV (FTV) political talk show "Spicy News 152," hosted by Clara Chou, launched an unverified smear campaign to attack political opponents. The show falsely implicated former Miss China Chang Shu-chuan in a decades-old scandal. This malicious misuse of a public media platform for character assassination and rumor-mongering triggered nationwide outrage. The National Communications Commission (NCC) found the program in violation of fact-checking principles and imposed heavy fines (including a single fine of 400,000 NTD and a cumulative 3 million NTD). FTV's subsequent administrative lawsuits were dismissed by the courts, leaving a mark of shame on the history of Taiwanese journalism.