The first reaction among many of my colleagues to the Government Information Office's (GIO) announcement on Monday that our ETTV News-S channel's license would not be renewed was shock, and then anger and a desire to stage a street protest.
It should go without saying that this is a media freedom issue and we would be justified in taking to the streets. The problem is that the GIO is half right. There is too much sensationalism in Taiwan's news media and our news channels have been part of the problem. There are many aspects of this decision that we do not agree with, but at the end of a post-midnight huddle, we decided to take our lumps and try to learn from this experience -- and to make a commitment that will hopefully improve the overall quality of news channels.
Eastern Broadcasting Co (EBC, which operates the ETTV channels) will abide by the law and we will appeal a decision we believe to be flawed, but we've also decided that the GIO has made some points that we would do well to heed.
In your editorial ("Taiwan's media needs discipline," Aug. 2, page 8), you conclude that you "hope that media proprietors or managers can adopt criteria for dealing with news coverage or programs in a professional and self-disciplined manner to win the support of the general public." We are doing just that.
Like all TV operators in Taiwan, we have wrestled with a desire to produce first-rate news and analysis while dealing with minute-by-minute ratings pressure to show sensationalistic content (which provide a ratings boost). Like our competitors, in far too many instances we have taken the sensationalistic route.
Now, our very survival is at stake. The GIO has made it clear that ETTV News' license renewal is conditional on improving the quality of news coverage and putting self-discipline mechanisms into place. Even as we try to appeal the loss of our other news channel's license, ETTV News will follow through on a promise to be a more responsible news provider and we will try to convince our competitors to join us in establishing an electronic media self-monitoring organization.
For many of us at EBC, it is with one part anxiety and one part excitement that we embark on this mission to develop a more mature and responsible brand of media freedom. Will our changes gain the support of the general public, or will we suffer reduced ratings? ETTV News-S is no longer available, but ETTV News is still on cable. Please stay tuned to watch this story unfold.
Jacques van Wersch
Taipei
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
RSS