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Government ‘buying off’ bloggers for
Kuokuang: GPT
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
People browse through a new book about
Taiwan’s wetland protection and the petrochemical industry at a book launch at
the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. The book was edited by writer Wu Sheng.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) yesterday accused the Ministry of Economic Affairs’
Industrial Development Bureau of “buying off” bloggers to publish blog entries
on the petrochemical industry and questioned if it was part of a campaign to
raise public support for a highly controversial plan to build a massive
petrochemical plant.
“This government is completely malfunctioning. It not only buys commercial media
outlets, now it’s buying independent bloggers,” GPT convener Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲)
said.
Pan told the Taipei Times by telephone that the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB)
had invited 20 bloggers on a trip to visit a petrochemical plant in Kaohsiung
and an electronic appliance plant nearby.
“The trip was totally free for participants. They received free meals and a
NT$5,000 cash award,” Pan said.
“The NT$5,000 for each participating blogger alone costs NT$100,000 of
taxpayers’ money and this doesn’t include the cost of hiring a marketing firm to
arrange the trip and other costs of the trip,” Pan said.
“Both President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) have talked
about ending government placement marketing, but what they are doing is far from
what they said,” Pan added.
A Web page announcing the event with details and links to related blog posts
confirmed Pan’s comments.
The event Web page said participating bloggers were required to publish at least
one blog post of 1,500 words or more and five pictures describing the trip
-before Friday to qualify.
In their blog post, bloggers were asked to “write down your expectations of the
Kuokuang petrochemical plant” as well as “comments and feelings” about the trip.
Kuokuang Petrochemical Co wants to construct a massive petrochemical plant along
the coast in Changhua County.
The plan has met with strong opposition from environmental groups as well as
local residents who worry about the pollution and the impact such a project
could have on the ecologically sensitive Changhua coast.
GPT Secretary-General Chang Hung-lin (張宏林) said studies by academics and
previous experience had proven that the highly polluting petrochemical industry
is not suitable for Taiwan.
“Despite this knowledge, the government still insists on -defending the Kuokuang
project without any regard for the health of the public,” Chang said.
“Now the government is even trying to get its hands on bloggers to speak for the
petrochemical industry,” Chang added.
“The government should apologize to the public,” Chang said.
At press time, IDB Director--General Woody Duh (杜紫軍) had not returned requests
for comment by the Taipei Times.
Separately, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he did not see any problems with the
practice of encouraging bloggers to write on a subject through subsidies, as
long as the blogs were not used as embedded marketing.
“This is not unlike the tours [of military facilities] organized by the Ministry
of National Defense for reporters covering national defense,” Wu said.
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