Hundreds of young Taiwanese from around the nation yesterday continued to put pressure on the government to act against media monopolization and reject the sale of the Next Media Group’s (壹傳媒集團) Taiwanese businesses to two consortiums with a six-hour protest outside the Joint Government Office Building, where officials from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and academics were holding a public hearing on the sale.
Next Media Group signed an agreement on Tuesday to sell its four Taiwanese businesses — the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Next Magazine, Sharp Daily and Next TV — for NT$17.5 billion (US$600 million) to two consortiums comprised of Chinatrust Charity Foundation (中信慈善基金會) chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) chairman William Wong (王文淵), Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), Lung Yen Life Service Corp (龍巖集團) chairman David Lee (李世聰) and Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance Co (台灣產物保險) chairman Steve Lee (李泰宏).
The sale has raised fears of a media monopoly and undue influence from China on Taiwan’s media, in light of the investors’ major business operations across the Taiwan Strait. Critics of Tsai, Taiwan’s wealthiest person, who made his fortune in China, have accused him of interfering with editorial matters at his other media outlets.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
For some of the protesters, the journey to Taipei began as early as 3:30am yesterday, as they boarded buses and headed for the capital to express their concerns about the deal.
A large delegation from the south was welcomed by loud cheers as it joined other participants outside the building, which was locked down under heavy security and barbed wire.
Police officers asked for the ID of anyone seeking to enter the building.
Photo: J. Michael Cole, Taipei Times
In all, about 500 people, mostly university students, braved the damp weather as the meeting began at 9am. According to the organizers, the participants came from 36 universities nationwide.
Some had already taken part in two protests in front of the Executive Yuan earlier this week organized by the student group Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters, which also helped organize a much larger protest on Sept. 1 against the planned acquisition by Tsai of the cable TV services operated by China Network Systems (CNS, 中嘉網路).
In a display of fraternity, representatives from each academic institution were invited up on stage to display banners or placards with the name of their school inscribed on them and they were greeted by huge applause.
As student leaders and academics addressed the young crowd, it soon became clear that few had high expectations that the FTC, along with the National Communications Commission (NCC), the Investment Commission and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) — the agencies that are to review the acquisition — would do a thorough job.
Alliance convener Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said the demonstrators were asking the FTC to investigate the issue of horizontal and vertical media integration that would be caused by the deal, and to hold a legally binding hearing so that the review procedures would be transparent.
They are also demanding that the legislature enact an anti-media monopoly law as soon as possible, Lin said.
“We will give the FTC two weeks to prepare for and hold a hearing, and we demand that it reject the deal in a month,” Lin told the protesters.
Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), one of the student leaders, said the students had two serious concerns — that a media monopoly is taking shape while the government remains clueless and fails to deal with the issue, and the growing influence of China on Taiwanese media.
Representative from civic groups also voiced their concerns about the deal, with Taiwan Democracy Watch saying in a statement that the government should do whatever it takes to keep media outlets from falling into the hands of a select few.
Leung Man-to (梁文韜), a political scientist at National Cheng Kung University who supports the students’ cause, said the deal was neither a business nor a legal issue, but a political issue.
Leung said he fears a “purple terror” is descending on Taiwan, in reference to Beijing’s influence, because “when you mix red [which represents the Chinese Communist Party] and blue [the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)], you get purple.”
Several promising young film directors, including Yeh Tien-lun (葉天倫), Yang Ya-che (楊雅) and Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭有傑) also showed up to express their support for the students, as did Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, led by Pan Men-an (潘孟安), and People First Party (PFP) Legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪).
In the afternoon, the demonstrators headed to the legislature, where they continued their protest as about 100 police officers equipped with riot shields looked on.
The legislative caucuses of the DPP, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the PFP all signed letters of commitment pledging to do their best to block the deal and to work on an anti-media monopoly law.
The KMT caucus refused to attend the event and sign the letter, saying the students’ protest was illegal.
Unhappy with the KMT’s response, the students marched to the front gate of the legislature and asked the party to “come out and address the issue.”
Student organizers surprised everyone with what they described as a “call-out tactic.” They telephoned KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih’s (林鴻池) office and played the conversation on loudspeakers.
Li Shing-hong (李成康), a student leader in Hong Kong’s “anti-brainwash movement” earlier this year telephoned Lin, but the person who answered the telephone said that the caucus whip was in a meeting and could not take the call.
The students then folded the letters of commitment into paper planes and threw them into the grounds of the legislature.
Before the protest ended at about 3pm, the students pledged to return to the streets of the capital — possibly in front of the Presidential Office — if the government “keeps playing dead” on the deal.
The DPP caucus said it would propose suspending the deal until anti-media monopoly regulations are in place.
DPP headquarters reiterated the party’s opposition to the deal and pledged to “take all possible and necessary action” to block the merger, party spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS