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EDITORIAL: Putting a stop to negative campaigns

Although far from perfect, Taiwan's democracy is developing in a positive direction, as can be seen in the clean-up of campaign materials in recent years.

In the past, a lot of material was aggressive and anonymous -- unsubstantiated and unsigned attacks were a common trick and were especially damaging when released just prior to elections, giving candidates little chance to defend themselves before votes were counted.

The worst kind of negative propaganda results in unfair elections, which is why the Election and Recall Act (選罷法) requires that all campaign material be accounted for. But while the law prevents candidates from launching slanderous and libelous attacks, it does not always stop others from doing it on a candidate's behalf.

A notorious example is the series of Special Report VCDs (非常光碟) -- an assemblage of videos filmed by pan-green supporters who had collected damaging information on opposition politicians and had it played out by actors -- released during the 2004 presidential and 2005 legislative elections. Intense media coverage made them a sensation and the tumult only died down when the candidates under attack filed lawsuits against their detractors. Lu Tung-long (盧統隆), the producer of the VCDs, was sentenced to six months for libel, though the sentence was convertible to a fine.

However, this did not stop production of similar propaganda videos. At the time, pan-green candidates did not think of the VCDs as illegal or even unethical. They not only silently condoned this negative campaigning, but also criticized prosecutors who investigated and confiscated copies and defended the producers.

The new Taiwan Weekly appears to be a print version of the Special Report VCDs. The two issues that have been publishedeto date have attacked Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his wife Chow Mei-ching (周美青). Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) has criticized the newspaper and urged the public not to read it.

Although the nation underwent a power shift when the DPP came to power eight years ago, a similar shift did not occur in the media as a majority of outlets still lean toward the pan-blue camp. The KMT's assets also allow the party to buy advertising time, enlarging the gap in media coverage of the pan-blue and pan-green campaigns. At the same time, confrontation between pro-blue and pro-green media outlets results in both groups straying from journalistic ethics and standards.

The Special Report VCDs and the Taiwan Weekly incidents can be read as a protest by small media outlets against their bigger counterparts. But regardless of their objectives, negative propaganda is never acceptable.

Both campaign teams have condemned the Taiwan Weekly, but this is unlikely to stop negative material from appearing. If the interests of the candidates are infringed upon, they can always turn to the judicial system. In the meantime, both camps would do well to cut back on the negative rhetoric and focus on their positive attributes.
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