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Freedom of the press is on the wane in
Taiwan
By James Wang 王景弘
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) was thrown behind bars for demanding the
rights that he is entitled to by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of
China. When Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the whole world supported the
decision, while the Chinese government said it was an insult to the Chinese
people and tried to block the news. At the same time, senior members of China’s
intelligentsia released an open letter in which they demanded freedom of the
press, but this too was blocked by the Chinese government.
These two issues directly point to the national shame of China, a supposed great
power. China does not allow its people basic freedoms, such as freedom of the
press and freedom of expression.
The book White House Diary contains a conversation between former US president
Jimmy Carter and former Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiao-ping (鄧小平). Carter
said US law stipulates that freedom of emigration was a condition required for a
country to be granted most favored nation status. In response, Deng asked if
allowing 10 million Chinese to emigrate to the US would be enough, to which
Carter quickly responded that the US would then send 10,000 reporters to China.
The two then laughed and dropped the matter. That happened 30 years ago, when
China’s “democratic dictatorship” was of the same ilk as the Chinese Nationalist
Party’s (KMT) martial law rule in Taiwan. Both parties spied on their own people
and kept tight controls on press freedom.
Unfortunately, as conscientious people of the old guard in China are calling for
press freedom, Taiwan’s hard-earned freedoms of the press and free speech are
being restricted and abused by an anti-democratic regime and certain media
outlets. Carter’s remarks highlight how the media can “create trouble” in
democratic societies and how freedom, independence, criticism and monitoring
protect the government and society from corruption. The media are not supposed
to exist to sing the praises of the powerful and cover up their mistakes.
However, honest advice is hard to take and authoritarian rule always relies on
coercion and bribery to control the media.
The lifting of martial law and Taiwan’s democratization removed controls on the
freedoms of expression and the press. During the Martial Law era, Taiwan’s media
did as they were told, and then they strongly criticized the first pro-Taiwanese
government. After the election of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), either because
of bias or favoritism, Taiwan’s media has become corrupt, stopped
differentiating between right and wrong and given up monitoring the government,
thus abandoning the most important function media serves in a democratic
society.
It is only natural that an anti-democratic person longing to be a dictator like
Ma would admire China’s media censorship, but it is completely unexpected that
Taiwan’s media outlets, after developing under martial law, would respond to
press freedom by degrading themselves and becoming the running dogs of the
government. If Carter had sent this kind of reporter, I am sure Deng would have
been only too happy to take him up on his offer.
James Wang is a media commentator.
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