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Watchdog still concerned about media interference

Despite President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) denial in a letter to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the international press freedom watchdog is concerned that the independence of the nation’s media is threatened and has urged the Ma government to refrain from manipulating the media.

“Taiwan should be a press freedom model in Asia and the independence of the public media is one of the key components of a free and diverse press system,” the group said in a statement released on Wednesday. “We want to believe in President Ma’s promises, but they must be translated into action.”

RSF was responding to a letter that Ma wrote to its secretary-general, Jean-Francois Julliard.

In October, Julliard condemned the Ma administration for attempting to control the media by calling reporters to ask them to rewrite news stories and then appointing party supporters to management positions at state-owned media outlets.

Radio Taiwan International (RTI) chairman Cheng Yu (鄭優) offered his resignation on Oct. 1 in protest against interference by the Government Information Office (GIO).

Later, the Central News Agency’s (CNA) deputy editor-in-chief Chuang Feng-chia (莊豐嘉) resigned. In an open letter issued on Oct. 8, Chuang said the agency’s reporters were being asked by CNA chairman Chen Shen-ching (陳申青) to withdraw reports critical of Ma and his administration.

Ma rebutted the accusations in a letter to Julliard.

“We believe that accusations of this administration’s interference in Taiwan’s media are based on some wrong information or misunderstandings,” Ma wrote in the letter.

Ma went on to say in the letter that the government “will never attempt to control or interfere in the activities in the media” and added the government “is fully aware of the indispensable role that freedom of the press has played in the consolidation of our democracy.”

However, recent disputes at Public Television System (PTS) have again raised concerns on the independence of the publicly owned media in Taiwan.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus, with endorsement of caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世), proposed a case-by-case review of PTS program budgets by the GIO and froze half of the PTS budget for next year.

The chairman and 10 other senior members of the Public Television Service Foundation — which oversees the PTS, Hakka Television, Indigenous Television and China Television Service — issued a statement last week condemning the KMT for attempting to control the media and called for their independence to be guaranteed.

RSF supported their view.

“Regardless of the political party debate, the media should have a favorable legislative and political environment,” the statement said. “We urge the president to order a probe into the various accusations of meddling and to set up mechanisms that guarantee media independence.”

The Presidential Office denied the accusations.

Presidential Office public relations director Eddy Tsai (蔡仲禮) told the Taipei Times via telephone that since TBS, RTI and CNA are partially funded by the government, “it’s reasonable for the Legislative Yuan to monitor their budgets — but never the actual program content.”

He said that Cheng had expressed his wish to resign as RTI chairman when Ma took office in May because of their different political ideologies, “but his resignation was not officially approved until the RTI board of directors officially met in October.”

Tsai confirmed that the GIO did contact state-owned media organizations, and that the GIO did so because it had received complaints or suggestions from the public.

“The GIO merely passed on the information to the media outlets and the media outlets actually found some of the suggestions useful,” he said.

Also See: Ma must clarify his role: group

Also See: EDITORIAL: Hollow promises of media freedom
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