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Editorial: War of words obscures real battle

The war of words between DPP legislator Lin Chung-mo (林重謨) and Sisy Chen (陳文茜), former DPP member and legislator-elect, has been appalling -- and entertaining -- Taiwan this week. Lin's poor word choice when he savaged Chen for allegedly misusing the media and violating journalism's ethical standards and Chen's attempts to shirk responsibility for her language and actions have been the topic of conversation in the halls of government, in the media, at offices and homes and at the corner noodle stand.

No matter how much he dislikes or despises Chen, there was no need for Lin to resort to such vulgarity, especially on the floor of the Legislative Yuan. Instead of winning support for his criticism, Lin ended up sparking public outrage on Chen's behalf. The issue at the heart of the controversy -- whether politicians and political parties should meddle in the media -- has almost been lost from sight.

Even though Chen declared her candidacy in early November, she continued to host a daily hour-long TV show until 10 days before the elections -- the start of the official campaign period -- and then popped up as a guest on another show on Nov 30. Most of her airtime was taken up in criticizing her political foes or inviting other politicians to do the same.

In her defense, Chen has said that since the government is the majority owner of TTV (台視) and CTS (華視) and has representatives in the management of both stations -- presumably meaning that the DPP is using the stations to propagate its opinions -- she won't give up her Power News spot unless the government pulls out of the media as well.

Such specious talk, however, completely ignores the fact that the DPP is legally bound to appoint representatives for government-owned shares -- positions inherited from the former KMT government. During the KMT era, the party government dominated the media. The KMT still controls CTV (中視), BCC (中廣) and the Central Daily News (中央日報), while KMT legislator Gary Wang (王令麟) controls ETTV (東森) and his close colleague Hung Hsiuh-chu (洪秀柱) has Power News.

Other legislators also have media investments, including independent Tsai Hao (蔡豪) with the Min Chung Daily News (民眾日報), the DPP's Trong Chai (蔡同榮) has FTV (民視) while his colleague Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏) has Global TV (環球電視).

Since there are no laws to stop politicians or political parties from running media outlets, media objectivity is still treated as a quaint foreign notion. It is time the government took steps to remedy this problem, by announcing a timetable for selling the government shares in TTV and CTS. The Cabinet and the Legislative Yuan should then block parties and legislators from future meddling by amending the Political Party Law (政黨法) and the Election and Recall Law (選罷法) and other related legislation.

The people of Taiwan suffered under government-sanctioned political brainwashing for more than half a century. It is time to end such manipulation of the media and attempts at thought-control. The only positive side to this week's battle royale between Lin and Chen is that it highlights the inappropriateness of political meddling in the media.

The government has a duty to the people to eliminate such Orwellian tactics and the people have the right to demand such action in order to protect Taiwan's fledgling democracy.
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