The recent tragic news that Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), the director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, committed suicide was saddening.
Japan Broadcasting Corp reported that Su had left a suicide note for his family saying that he could “not live with the strong criticism from outsiders” over the handling of Taiwanese stranded at Kansai International Airport after it was closed following flooding caused by Typhoon Jebi earlier this month, and that he found the criticism to be “very painful.”
Late on Sept. 14, Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s biggest online bulletin board system, announced that it would stop reviewing new user applications, because the problem of fake accounts was becoming increasingly serious.
Some have conjectured that the announcement was a result of Su’s suicide, because the first PTT post during the typhoon said that China had sent 15 tour buses to evacuate Chinese stranded at the airport.
It was later found that the post was made from an account with an Internet Protocol address in Beijing, and gradually more false and misleading reports were made from accounts that claimed to belong to Taiwanese.
Regardless of whether Su committed suicide because of public pressure resulting from fake reports on PTT, Internet news media have a responsibility to moderate and restrict the spread of images or text that slander, threaten or in other ways attack someone.
These media outlets must stop being the accomplices of online bullies. This is the absolute minimum social responsibility that a media outlet should have.
For example, international media outlets such as the New York Times provide a button with the word “Flag” under each post left by a reader on their Web site. Anyone who clicks that button can report the poster for making statements that are inflammatory, off-topic, a personal attack, vulgar or spam and explain why.
Likewise, the Web site of British daily the Financial Times has a “Report” button, which users can click if they want to report an inappropriate post. The reporting options it offers are “spam,” “offensive,” “disagree” and “off-topic.”
The view within the information industry is that these options can help reduce the abuse of the freedom of expression and the spread of exaggerated reports made by Internet users.
The question is whether media outlets are unable to introduce this kind of reporting system, or if it simply is a matter of being unwilling to do so.
It is true that everyone has the right to express their views, but at the same time people must understand that freedom of expression does not guarantee that fabrications and words of a humiliating nature are not used in public humiliation and unreasonable and irrational statements.
These are things that disciplined online news organizations should do everything in their power to eliminate once and for all.
Wei Shih-chang works in the information industry.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under