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Academics highlight
threats to media freedom
‘RED HAND’: Aside from embedded Chinese
advertisements in local news, Beijing-based Taiwanese reporters have also taken
to practicing self-censorship, a forum says
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Academics and journalists yesterday expressed concern about the threats to
Taiwanese media of an increasing concentration of ownership and Chinese
influence.
Various incidents in the past year showed “it’s time the government exercised
its power to deal with increasing Chinese influence, concentration of ownership
and the media impunity issue,” National Taiwan University professor Flora Chang
(張錦華) said at a conference hosted by the Association of Taiwan Journalists on
World Press Freedom Day yesterday.
Chang said that although Taiwanese laws are now able to prevent the “black
hands” of political parties, the government and military from influencing the
media, the government has done nothing to contain the “red hand” of China, which
has placed a large volume of embedded advertisements in local media.
The phenomenon looks set to create an “everyone loses” situation: for Taiwanese,
who can no longer enjoy quality journalism; the media, which has failed to live
up to its gatekeeper role; and the country, she said.
“I would say it’s a national disgrace to sell news to and reduce human
rights-related coverage of a country that has more than 1,000 missiles pointed
at us,” she said.
Big businesses’ use of their abundant capital to expand their media holdings has
also had grave and negative consequences on media ownership.
A bid by Want Want China Times Group to acquire China Network Systems’ cable TV
services — a NT$76 billion (US$2.57 billion) merger that would affect a quarter
of households with TVs nationwide — has raised heated discussion, with most
people expressing concern and opposing the merger, Chang said.
Chang described the deal as “unprecedented” and said it could jeopardize freedom
of the press and expression if approved.
A revival of state interference in news media appears to be taking place, with a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker accusing two journalists of defamation
for reporting on the alleged pressure put on the National Communications
Commission over the Want Want bid, said Leon Chuang (莊豐嘉), director of the
online news Web site Newtalk.
Government officials, representatives and business leaders have become
accustomed to taking journalists and academics to court — in particular, filing
civil lawsuits that seek huge damages — to stop their reporting, he said.
Lee Chih-teh (李志德), a Radio Free Asia reporter who has extensive experience
covering cross-strait affairs, highlighted another area of Chinese influence —
the way it has induced Beijing-based Taiwanese journalists to practice
self-censorship.
Beijing applied political pressure on all foreign reporters, but it is also able
to control Taiwanese reporters from an economic vantage point, because “most
Taiwanese newspapers and television stations want to get a share of the Chinese
market.”
“And that’s why Taiwanese media and reporters tend to self-censor their China
coverage,” Lee said.
In the latest freedom of the press ranking released by the Freedom House on
Tuesday, Taiwan ranked 47th in the world, one place higher than last year.
However, Taiwan has not fared better than 43rd since President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) took office in 2008, when Taiwan was ranked 32nd in the world during the
last year the Democratic Progressive Party was in power.
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