The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday slammed the government for interfering in the state-owned Central News Agency’s (CNA) news operations.
“CNA reporters have been asked to reduce coverage of nongovernment stories or even to ignore those stories completely,” DPP deputy caucus whip Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) told a press conference yesterday.
“I’ve noticed since September that stories about the DPP have been decreasing [and some] don’t come out until late at night,” she added.
The DPP’s criticism came one day after CNA deputy editor-in-chief Chuang Feng-chia (莊豐嘉) said in an open letter that the agency’s reporters were often asked to withdraw reports critical of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his administration by CNA chairman Chen Shen-ching (陳申青). Chuang added that Chen might have done so under pressure from the Government Information Office (GIO).
In the letter, Chuang also said that the appointment of Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Ma’s spokesman during his presidential campaign, as CNA vice chairman was made out of political rather than professional considerations.
Calling government intervention in the news business “absurd,” Chuang tendered his resignation, citing “differences in ideals.”
Kuan said yesterday that the government should not try to create a positive image “by getting rid of negative news, but should learn from its mistakes and create something positive out of it.”
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) said that the CNA, as a professional news agency, should be neutral regardless of which party is in power.
“Such interference is no different from censorship in authoritarian countries,” she said.
The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also released a statement yesterday expressing its concern that media independence may be in jeopardy in Taiwan.
“Taiwan’s new government is exhibiting worrying reflexes towards attempting to control the media,” the IFJ statement said. “These latest appointments and directives suggest the government fails to understand the critical importance of editorial independence in a democratic society.”
“The IFJ condemns Taiwan’s apparent interference in state-owned media and urges government authorities to refrain from further acts that could jeopardise editorial independence,” it added.
Responding to the criticism, the CNA issued a statement saying that “news reports are written according to guidelines set forth by past management and all reports are reviewed according to the guidelines [before being published].”
It denied there was any political interference in the news agency’s news reports and defended the 35- year-old Lo’s appointment by saying that while Lo was nominated by Chen, the appointment “was approved by the Board of Directors because of [Lo’s] background in business administration and law.”
When asked for comment yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said he believed there must have been some “miscommunication” between reporters and their supervisors at CNA when they discussed news stories. He did not elaborate.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said the government made the personnel reshuffle not to dominate the news outlet but to introduce professionals into the agency.
Last week, the KMT government was accused of interfering in another media outlet.
Several board members at Radio Taiwan International resigned after accusing the GIO of trying to stop the station from criticizing China — an accusation GIO Minister Vanessa Shih (史亞平) denied.
Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang and Flora Wang
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