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Embedded Chinese
advertisements prompt concern
Staff writer, with CNA
Media groups at home and abroad have raised concern over the issue of ˇ§embeddedˇ¨
Chinese advertisements in Taiwanese newspapers.
Freedom House, a Washington-based think tank, on Tuesday released its Freedom of
the Press 2012 report, which saw Taiwanˇ¦s ranking move up one notch to 47.
While the report said Taiwanˇ¦s media environment remained one of the freest in
Asia and boasted a vigorous and diverse press that reports aggressively on
government policies and alleged official wrongdoing, it said there continue to
be incidents of news content produced by Chinaˇ¦s state-run media outlets
appearing in Taiwanese newspapers ˇ§under less than transparent conditions.ˇ¨
It cited positive developments, such as the passage of legal amendments designed
to curtail a practice in which government promotional material is disguised as
news, but added that during the past year, ˇ§media freedom watchdogs raised
concerns about the use of criminal defamation laws against a journalist and
blogger, as well as a proposed merger that could reduce media diversity.ˇ¨
The issue of ˇ§embeddingˇ¨ Chinese advertisements in local newspapers was also
brought up on Tuesday by the Taipei-based Foundation for Prevention of Public
Damage by the Media.
A survey of the reports published in March in five Chinese-language dailies
found that four of them carried between one and eight Chinese advertisements in
their reports. The Liberty Times (the Taipei Timesˇ¦ sister paper) was the only
one that did not.
Some newspapers dedicated stories to covering in detail the schedules of
visiting Chinese officials and surreptitiously placed ads in the stories, the
foundation said, urging media outlets to practice self-discipline and adopt
professional ethics.
The Mainland Affairs Council has said that any Chinese advertisements that are
not legally permitted in Taiwan should not be embedded in reports.
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