Concern over the nation’s retreat on human rights has been growing at home and abroad. A number of international human-rights groups, including Freedom House and the International Federation for Human Rights, have issued stern statements over the condition of Taiwan’s human rights status.
Sadly, these words of caution appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Not only has the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government failed to respond to such apprehension, it is brazenly proceeding with its agenda. The latest act of chutzpah was the promotion of several Taipei City police chiefs who were accused of using illegal tactics against protesters during the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) earlier this month.
Now the National Communications Commission (NCC) has announced plans to amend the Satellite Broadcasting Law (衛星廣播電視法). The council is reportedly mulling the introduction of the concept of provisional disposition, stipulated in the Civil Procedure Code (民事訴訟法), to the Satellite Broadcasting Law, to allow people or agencies who feel they have been the victim of erroneous or biased reporting to sue TV outlets and/or commentators.
Some media professionals have criticized the proposal, saying the commission should focus on how to strengthen the media and TV commentators’ roles in correcting erroneous reports or comments instead of bludgeoning media outlets and journalists with the threat of legal action.
The NCC’s proposal comes hard on the heels of the Financial Supervisory Commission barring market analyst Allen Chu (朱成志) from appearing on TV talk shows for one month because it said his article, “A lesson in credit transactions for a stupid president,” contained statistical errors. The NCC proposal, under the pretense of ensuring journalistic accountability, could be used to eliminate TV commentary it deems unfriendly.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) need to be reminded of the campaign pledges they made earlier this year.
In a campaign TV spot aired during the presidential campaign, Siew said that the nation under Democratic Progressive Party rule had lost many things: “We lost the economy, national competitiveness … Taiwan can no longer be hollowed out, Taiwan can no longer be lost. This is not an issue of whether the KMT must come back to power, but an issue of safeguarding Taiwan from tumbling further into a pit.”
It appears, however, just six months into the KMT’s return to power, that Taiwan has not only lost its economic momentum, but also its commitment to freedom of speech and the rule of law.
During the campaign, Ma and Siew issued a “Declaration of Human Rights,” pledging to “thoroughly implement [Taiwan’s] pledge made in the ‘International Bill of Human Rights,’ make Taiwan a model for the international community on human rights and consign ‘White Terror’ and ‘Green Terror’ to the history books forever.”
The past few weeks have shown that while the KMT may think the White Terror is over, a new Blue Terror could well be in the pipeline.
RSS