TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-ping announced yesterday that Next Media will be fined NT$500,000 for violating the Children and Youth Welfare Law by posting obscene motion graphic news on the Internet.

Hau said that as city mayor and the father of a junior high student he was concerned about the content of the service, which he described as improper and harmful to children and youth who are among the most enthusiastic Web users.

The city government decided to impose the most severe penalty on Next Media for failing to observe the rating system for news media content, he said.

The media group may be fined again if it continues to violate the rating regulations, according to the mayor.

Stressing that the city government fully respects press freedom, Hau said the media should however be aware its social obligations and respect morality.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's top communications official yesterday warned Next Media against streaming sensational motion graphic news stories online with explicit sex and violent crime scenes targeting the local market.

Bonnie Peng, chairperson of the National Communications Commission (NCC), said although no existing laws may be invoked to ban Next's trial run for the novel news service, she is not going to just turn a blind eye.

Next's application to launch cable TV channels in Taiwan could be at stake, she warned.

The Hong Kong group, which publishes the hugely popular tabloid Apple Daily newspaper and Next magazine, unveiled the trial online news service last week.

Rather than streaming video footage, the service reconstructs crime actions using motion graphics.

Sexual assaults, murders, robberies are often depicted explicitly in what some critics have described as "X-rated" scenes, which can also be downloaded to cell phones through Chunghwa Telecom.

The service has sparked a public outcry, condemned by various children's and women's rights groups, educators and media observers groups.

Some of them have made plans to issue a protest statement and hold a protest.

Peng said NCC will invite these groups to a meeting on the motion graphic news service, and their conclusions will serve as a foundation for screening Next's cable channel application.

"By my definition, this actually cannot be called news," Peng told lawmakers of the legislative transport committee, whose meeting focused on the Next news service.

Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties described the motion graphic news service as a "crime textbook."

They demanded the NCC address the issue as soon as possible.

Peng said the NCC will prepare a report within one month on how to handle the motion graphic news service.

She admitted that NCC currently lacks regulations governing such trial runs.

But she promised to take actionn on Chunghwa Telecom, as the duty of NCC is to govern digital convergence.

Ho Chi-sen, head of the NCC Broadcasting and Content Department, said the Taipei City government can cite the Telecommunications Law and demand that Chunghwa Telecom disable Next's news service.

The Child and Youth Welfare Law can also be invoked to regulate the news service, whose content could be harmful for children and young people, said Ho.

The NCC has already contacted the Child Welfare Bureau (CWB) of the Interior Ministry (MOI) trying to jointly address the issue.

Chien Hui-jiuan, head of the CWB, said if it is found to be in violation of the law, Next's news service could be fined NT$100,000-NT$500,000 or banned from operating for one month to one year.

Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah said the Cabinet will form a cross-department platform to handle the case as soon as possible.

He noted that while the NCC oversees news content, the classification of broadcast programs involves the CWB and transport ministry governs broadcast news channels.

The minister said that if the media group is found to have broken the Children and Youth Welfare Law, the ministry could decide to impose the penalty on Thursday.

Having watched several clips of Next Media reports in motion graphics, the minister commented that reporting crime in virtual reality is a very bad practice.

Although it is not forbidden in countries with freedom of speech, the protection of children and youth should be taken into consideration, he added.

NCC Vice Chairman Chen Cheng-tsang said Next Media is very unlikely to be granted a TV news license if it plans to deliver news containing motion graphics.

He said the NCC supports the use of motion graphics to present news about technology or new findings, but not for reconstructed murder or rape scenes.

But Next, in an op-ed piece in yesterday's Apple Daily, said it expects the NCC to review its TV station license applications objectively.

Chen Yu-hsin, editor-in chief of Next Media's TV news department, said the group has promised the NCC that news about violence, killings and sexual assaults will not be broadcast in motion graphics on TV.

Next Media plans to start five TV stations in Taiwan. Three of them -- including sport and drama channels -- have been approved by the licensing working group.

But a news channel and a mixed genre channel will be examined more closely, according to NCC officials.

Chunghwa Telecom argued that it is only a platform provider for Next's news services.