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Freedom of the press takes a step backward

On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, US-based Freedom House released its annual report on media freedom. Taiwan’s ranking in the 2009 Freedom of the Press survey slipped 11 spots to 43rd place from last year’s 32nd. And after three consecutive years of being ranked as Asia’s freest press, Taiwan conceded that honor to Japan.

Taiwan’s performance over the past year can only be described as disgraceful. It is true that Freedom House still ranks Taiwan as “free,” but over the past year media freedom has regressed conspicuously.

In its international news release, Freedom House noted that “declines in Israel, Italy and Taiwan illustrate that established democracies with traditionally open media are not immune to restricting media freedom.”

The report clearly indicated that the reason Taiwan’s ranking declined is because “media in Taiwan faced assault and growing government pressure.”

A case in point was the visit by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) six months ago.

The report also included the decline in Taiwan’s press freedom in its key regional findings.

Taiwan’s ranking once made impressive progress in the Freedom House survey. In 2004, the nation’s press freedom ranked 50th worldwide, gradually advancing to 44th in 2005, 35th in 2006, 33rd in 2007 and 32nd last year, replacing Japan as the freest press in Asia.

Now this hard-earned achievement has been sullied by the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), causing media freedom in Taiwan to slip drastically. It is a problem that should be of concern not only to media workers but also the public in general.

Founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, Freedom House aims to be a voice for “democracy and freedom around the world.”

When the survey was conducted earlier this year, the organization dispatched experts to Taiwan for an on-site inspection.

The observation and findings of the in-depth investigation indeed provided penetrating criticism of the current situation.

It is also noteworthy that not only has global press freedom declined for a seventh straight year, but press freedom in Chinese-speaking countries generally fell behind.

China — notorious for having the least free media — failed to uphold its promise to ensure press freedom during the Olympics, and instead “chose to remain the world’s largest repressor of media freedom.”

Singapore, which is ruled by an authoritarian regime, has continued to lag behind in the rankings.

Hong Kong, surprisingly, has been downgraded to “partly free” status, as Beijing exerts obvious influence over media.

On May 4, 1919, the anti-imperialist student movement known as the “May Fourth Movement” launched in China with an eye to establishing democracy.

Now that Chinese-speaking countries have fallen behind in global press freedom, it is clear that there is room for improvement of democracy, human rights and freedom in Chinese cultures.

Since returning to power, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has leaned toward China and, in only one year, the nation’s press freedom has taken a big step backward.

The old saying is indeed true: A leopard never changes its spots.



Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.

TRANSLATED BY TED YANG
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