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Taipei government defends treatment of media workers

In the wake of recent allegations that a Taipei deputy mayor suppressed press freedom by threatening the media, a survey released by a Taipei City councilor yesterday showed that more than 66 percent of journalists have experienced or heard of the city government's discrimination against reporters.

The survey conducted on Wednesday collected answers from 42 reporters covering the city government beat. It explored the relationship between the Taipei City Government and the media, after an article in the latest issue of Eyewitness magazine said that Taipei Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) had asked a reporter from the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) to "be careful" in her reporting, because he had the cellphone number of her paper's editors-in-chief.

According to the survey, 66 percent of respondents thought the city government was discriminatory in its treatment of the media, and 78 percent said they had been "treated by city officials with poor manners" or knew colleagues who had been.

More than 64 percent of respondents said they had received phone calls from officials, or were asked to meet them to talk about their stories.

"More than 85 percent of reporters said they think those phone calls or meetings were a suppression of press freedom, and this, I think explains the tension between the city government and the media," People First Party City Councilor Dai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) said yesterday during a question and answer session at the Taipei City Council.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said it is not necessarily suppression of press freedom for city government staff to be concerned about media reports.

"If the media reports are incorrect or biased, there is nothing wrong with our staff expressing their concerns," Ma said at the council meeting.

The city government received an average score of 64.88 percent for its interaction with the media.

When asked about the rating, the mayor said the relationship between the government at any level and the media should never be harmonious.

"It is the media's responsibility to find fault with the government, and so I think it is normal that there is tension between the two," he said.

King admitted yesterday that he had called media executives to express concern over the content of some articles, and that he lost his temper when trying to "communicate with the reporter."

"But she didn't include the reason for my anger in her article ... And although I called the editor to express my concerns, I called after the report came out and I did not interfere with the news report," he said.

King declined to comment further on the issue, but emphasized that he always "patiently communicates" with reporters before making a call, and that he would be happy to discuss the issue with the reporter and the magazine in a panel discussion.

Ma said the city will review the survey results and continue to communicate with reporters.
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