TVBS Reporter Filmed Gangster

The China Times and other media outlets are now reporting that Chou Cheng-pao's video-taped threats were in fact filmed by Shih Chen-kang, a TVBS reporter from the station's Nantou bureau. TVBS has issued a public apology and fired Shih along with another reporter from the station's central Taiwan department. TVBS broke the story of the videotape a few days ago as an exclusive.

The station is claiming that Shih concealed the origin of the videotape. But officials from the National Communications Council aren't buying the station's story. They say that the station could be fined between NT$200,000 and NT$2 million and ordered to stop broadcasting for up to three months.

Earlier this year, TVBS caused consumer panic after it ran sensationalist reports of consumers who bought ducks with traces of tar in their beaks. Those reports were later discredited by government testing at slaughterhouses but caused financial losses for duck farmers.

Update

Many media sources reported that TVBS would be ordered to stop broadcasting for three days.
In fact, Article 37 of the Satellite TV Broadcasting Act provides that a station can be be ordered to stop broadcasting for three days to three months if (among other things) it is caught broadcasting content that offend good public morals or disrupt public order three times in one year.

Update

The NCC has wussed out and will fine TVBS up to NT$1 million. The NCC says it can't order TVBS to stop broadcasting because this is the first time TVBS has been found.

Update

Chou was arrested this afternoon in Taichung County's Wuri Township. The guns Chou was brandishing in his video have turned out to be toy guns.