The protesters marched down the streets to TVBS’s office building, as they displayed placards reading, “the Cabinet must toughen up.”

They briefly scuffled with riot police, who tried to stop the protesters from pelting the TVBS building with missiles.

They criticized TVBS — invested by the Hong Kong-based TVBS — for lacking journalistic professionalism.

They charged that the cable network has been serving as China’s organ, creating sensational stories to intimidate the Taiwan society.

TVBS has been popular for its political talk show hosted by veteran journalist Lee Tao, a strong critic of the government.

But the network’s credibility has been at stake in the recent months following a couple of false reports.

The latest saw TVBS air an exclusive footage of a gun-brandishing gangster who issued a death threat for his former gang boss.

But it turned out that the footage was staged and filmed by one the network’s reporters, who was summarily fired by TVBS following the revelation.

The National Communications Commission (NCC), despite pressure from the Cabinet to have TVBS’s license revoked, only fined the network NT$2 million, and demanded Lee be replaced as TVBS president.

Lee has stepped down as the TVBS president, but he continues to host the popular talk show.

Despite calls for boycotting TVBS, the ratings of Lee’s show shot up on the night when the channel admitted making a mistake.

Lee lengthened the program that night, conducting soul-searching talks with his guests about media ethics.

The protesters, including more than a dozen DPP elected officials, professors and others from 26 civilian groups, also demanded the NCC stop operating.

They also demanded the government revoke the licenses of all “China-funded” TV stations.

TVBS said from now on it will not respond to any calls from political groups.

But it urged the Taipei City government to consider the rights of TVBS employees and of the stores in the neighborhood when issuing permits for similar protests in the future.

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