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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 (馬英九) 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 (壹傳媒集團) 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°C, 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 (林飛帆), 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 (張錦華)
condemned what he called Ma’s silence on the issue and refusal to listen to the
people, while Academia Sinica researcher Wu Ruei-ren (吳叡人) 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 (信義).
In related news, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Deserts Chang (張懸) praised Wu
Ching-feng (吳青峰), the lead singer of the popular band Sodagreen (蘇打綠), 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 (旺旺中時集團),
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
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