|
Academics urge ‘China
Times’ boycott
DO NOT WANT: One professor said the ‘China
Times’ owner’s control over the paper’s editorial line and what reporters write
made him feel like he was in a totalitarian regime
By Lee Yu-hsin / Staff Reporter
Representatives of academic and
civic groups announce a campaign to boycott the Want Want Group-owned China
Times at a press conference in the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
More than 60 academics and members of
civic groups launched a petition yesterday to boycott the Chinese-language China
Times newspaper over recent controversial remarks by its owner, Tsai Eng-meng
(蔡衍明), concerning the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Tsai, chairman and chief executive of the Want Want Group (旺旺集團) and owner of
multiple media outlets including the China Times, said in an interview last
month with the Washington Post that the 1989 crackdown on June 4 in Beijing did
not constitute a massacre.
A joint petition drafted by academics and civic groups, including the Taipei
Society and pro-democracy advocates, yesterday called for a “boycott of the
crooked China Times.”
Petitioners called on the public to reject such an “unfaithful medium,” accusing
the China Times of abandoning its responsibilities as a media outlet and
allowing itself to become a tool for Tsai to ingratiate himself with a
totalitarian regime.
Taipei Society director Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appealed for more academics to
join their efforts to blacklist the China Times, adding that they might petition
government agencies in the near future.
National Chengchi University’s Department of Radio and Television associate
professor Kuo Li-shin (郭力昕) said Tsai’s remarks had damaged the professionalism,
autonomy and freedom of journalism.
Kuo also called on columnists perceived as pan-blue to back the boycott by “not
writing or publishing” in the China Times in a bid to heal a split within
society that divides people into either pan-blue or pan-green camps.
“This is just the first step,” Kuo said, adding that Tsai’s constant attempts to
acquire and merge different media outlets have monopolized the supposedly
diversified public voices of Taiwanese society.
Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰), an assistant researcher at Academia Sinica, expressed
concern over how little attention the media have paid to Tsai’s remarks,
describing the phenomenon as “the gradual collapse of Taiwan’s defense mechanism
for its democracy.”
With the owner of a media outlet being in total control of its editorial line
and monitoring what its reporters can put in their -articles, it appears as if
Taiwanese are under the control of a totalitarian regime again, National
Chengchi University professor Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華) said.
Wang Dan (王丹), a student leader in Tiananmen Square in 1989 who initiated the
boycott against the China Times last month via a post on his Facebook page,
yesterday wrote on his Facebook page: “In my opinion, people are entitled to
express their stance on historic incidents and to defend their freedom of speech
in their own manner. It’s not necessary to force columnists currently working at
the China Times to quit writing because of public pressure. So long as they can
ensure that their articles are not altered or removed, we should respect their
choices.”
Meanwhile, according to a reporter working at the China Times, employees
scarcely talked about the controversy triggered by Tsai, adding that Tsai’s
remarks and the China Times’ pro-China stance had caused jeering among his
co-workers.
“We are only trying to make a living,” the anonymous reporter said, adding that
Tsai, who last week said his remarks had been distorted and taken out of
-context by the Washington Post and that he would communicate with people who
misunderstood him, should keep his word and clearly explain his remarks.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff Writer
|
