The government has come under fire in recent weeks over its rampant practice of “buying news” and placing advertorials in newspapers. Just when much of the nation’s media is recuperating from the damage done to their credibility as a result of the advertorial furor, along comes another allegation suggesting that some of the nation’s bloggers have also succumbed to the government’s abuse of taxpayers’ money.
The Green Party Taiwan on Monday said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration was buying off bloggers to post articles in favor of a Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co project in Changhua County, a joint investment by state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan and the private sector that has been engulfed in controversy.
The Green Party Taiwan alleged the Industrial Development Bureau took a group of bloggers on a tour of petrochemical sites and paid them NT$5,000 apiece in return for their publishing a minimum 1,500-character blog entry about their trip and their impressions of what they saw.
The bureau said the visit was co-sponsored by the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan and FunP.com and that it had only helped show the bloggers around. The visit had nothing to do with the Kuokuang Petrochemical project, the bureau said.
The facts, however, speak for themselves.
First, on FunP.com’s Web page announcing the event, it clearly stated the visit had been planned in light of the recent controversy surrounding the Kuokuang project.
“The Industrial Development Bureau will lift the mysterious veil of the petrochemical industry,” the Web page’s introduction said, singling out the bureau.
It also showed the bureau as having issued the event notice to FunP.com, with citations showing the bureau was responsible for answering all questions related to the visit, including the NT$5,000 cash payment at the end of the trip.
Some have been quick to criticize the bloggers, accusing them of deceiving their readers and breaching their trust.
While it is reasonable to remind the bloggers of their social responsibility as members of the general public, one must not lose sight of the real culprit.
Aside from the simply inexcusable ploy of paying bloggers for writing entries, a glance at the visit’s itinerary highlights the superficiality of the program. How could a visit of less than four hours provide a full understanding of the work and impacts of a petrochemical project? If the bureau did want the bloggers to pen their thoughts about petrochemical plants, wouldn’t having them reside in the area for, say, three months or half a year, be a better way for the bloggers to see what’s going on and provide more insightful commentaries?
The legislature yesterday passed a binding resolution requiring the Executive Yuan to pursue a legal amendment to limit the government’s use of embedded marketing. It also passed an amendment to the Budget Act (預算法), prohibiting this practice placed by government agencies at all levels as well as state-funded and state-run enterprises.
While it remains to be seen how the binding resolution will play out, it is dreadful to think that one day we may see the Ma administration paying bloggers to visit China and post entries trumpeting the benefits of unification with that country.
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