20130102 Students furious over Ma¡¦s ¡¥non-response¡¦
Prev Up Next

¡@

Students furious over Ma¡¦s ¡¥non-response¡¦

By Chris Wang / Staff reporter


Police officers with riot shields form a wall to keep students protesting about media monopolies away from a New Year¡¦s Day flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei shortly before dawn yesterday.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times


Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters convener Lin Fei-fan, holding microphone, responds to President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s New Year¡¦s Day address during a protest near the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday, following an overnight vigil.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times


Hundreds of university students voiced their disappointment and anger over President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s (°¨­^¤E) continued silence over their anti-media monopoly appeal following an overnight vigil yesterday and vowed to keep on pressing the president for a response and action on an issue that risks undermining freedom of speech in the nation.

The students launched the protest on 7pm on Monday at Liberty Square, followed by a sit-in protest starting at 4am yesterday on Ketagalan Boulevard, right outside the restricted area for the New Year¡¦s Day flag-raising ceremony. They demanded that the president clarify his position on the controversial Next Media Group (³ü¶Ç´C¶°¹Î) deal and address related issues on media monopoly and Chinese influence over Taiwan¡¦s media.

However, Ma did not say a single word about the students¡¦ concern about media monopoly in his New Year¡¦s Day address.

In their fifth protest over the media deal since July, the students braved the cold, with temperatures hovering around 10¢XC, and took turns making speeches about how the deal could jeopardize media diversity and, for the first time, listed their concern over growing Chinese influence on Taiwan¡¦s media as a primary cause of the protest.

Sitting in front of hundreds of police equipped with riot shields, the crowd chanted slogans, such as ¡§Anti-media monopoly,¡¨ ¡§Ma Ying-jeou, declare your position¡¨ and ¡§Anti-Beijing interference¡¨ before concluding the protest at 8:30am.

Lin Fei-fan (ªL­¸¦|), leader of the Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters, the organizer of the protests, announced five demands: that Ma should pledge that he is against media monopoly and initiate concrete measures to stem rising Chinese influence; that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should not block amendments to media regulatory bills; that Fair Trade Commission should hold a legally binding public hearing; that the Investment Commission should clarify whether the consortium applying to purchase the Next Media Group should be considered foreign investors; and that the government should disclose all information about the deal and ensure transparency.

¡§If the government fails to make substantial progress [on these issues], we will keep coming back,¡¨ Lin said.

The students have received strong support from university professors and civic groups. More than 600 professors across the country had signed a petition in support of their cause and several professors attended the protests and spoke with the students. National Taiwan University professor Chang Chin-hwa (±iÀAµØ) condemned what he called Ma¡¦s silence on the issue and refusal to listen to the people, while Academia Sinica researcher Wu Ruei-ren (§dèû¤H) said: ¡§Ma has to choose between the good and the evil, and he will be ultimately judged by Taiwanese and history.¡¨

Prior to the sit-in, the students gathered at Liberty Square for a night rally, which was filled with songs and speeches. They staged their own year-end countdown, to the tune of The Final Countdown, a 1980s hit by the rock band Europe, to rival the countdown party at Taipei¡¦s Xinyi District («H¸q).

In related news, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Deserts Chang (±iÄa) praised Wu Ching-feng (§d«C®p), the lead singer of the popular band Sodagreen (Ĭ¥´ºñ), in a Facebook post, after the latter voiced his opposition to media monopoly on stage during his New Year¡¦s Eve live performance at the E-da World theme park in Greater Kaohsiung.

However, Wu¡¦s remarks were removed from the rerun aired by China Television Co, a television channel owned by pro-China Want Want China Times Group (©ô©ô¤¤®É¶°¹Î), which was in charge of broadcasting the festivities.

¡§He [Wu] has always managed to achieve things that I couldn¡¦t do or do well enough. I¡¦m truly grateful for his ability to cleverly manage fame and to transform fame into a power that prevents him from being manipulated,¡¨ Chang wrote.

AdditIonal reporting by Lin Shu-hui

 Prev Next