Political polarization, self-censorship and indirect influence from Beijing limit the diversity of opinions represented in the mainstream media in Taiwan, according to a survey of the world’s press released this week by Washington-based Freedom House.
Despite these negatives, the survey said that Taiwan’s media environment was one of the freest in Asia, with a “vigorous and diverse” press that reported aggressively on government policies and alleged official wrongdoing.
Covering the whole of last year, the survey said that as commercial ties between Taiwan and China deepened, signs of self-censorship persisted.
“In addition to a reduced amount of front-page articles about China’s social and political issues, critics cited a surge of entertainment news about Chinese celebrities,” the survey found.
A total of 197 countries were ranked in order of media independence, with the top spot shared by Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.
Taiwan placed 47th, behind the US, which ranked 30th, but well ahead of China, which was 183rd.
North Korea came in last with the most restricted and censored media in the world.
New Zealand ranked 22nd, Australia 33rd and Japan 42nd.
Freedom House reported that global press freedom had fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade and said the decline was driven in part by a major regression in the Middle East, a number of countries in Africa and deterioration in the “relatively open media environment” in the US.
Only 14 percent of the world’s population — one in seven people — lived in countries with a “free” media, while 42 percent had a “partly free” media and 44 percent had a “not free” media.
In the Asia-Pacific region, 5 percent of people had access to a “free” media, while China was said to continue its crackdown on online speech, particularly on microblogs, as it ramped up pressure on foreign journalists.
Press freedom was said to have deteriorated in Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and several Pacific Island states.
The survey said that despite public support, efforts to pass an act to prevent media monopolies in Taiwan stalled last year, with lawmakers unable to reach consensus on the ownership limits.
The legal, political and economic environment for the media in Taiwan was judged to have deteriorated slightly over the past five years.
“China’s media environment remained one of the world’s most restrictive in 2013,” the survey showed.
“After intellectuals and members of civil society urged the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to adhere to the constitution and a rare strike by journalists at a major newspaper sparked broader public pressure to reduce censorship, the authorities responded with campaigns to intensify ideological controls,” it said.
The survey said that despite the robust censorship system in China, journalists, grassroots activists and netizens continued to use creative means to expose official wrongdoing, in some cases forcing the authorities to offer concessions such as the dismissal of corrupt officials and the closure of a notorious labor camp.
However, Chinese citizens’ ability to freely share and access uncensored information, particularly about breaking news, suffered an overall setback last year.
“The new judicial guidelines and the growing number of arrests had an immediate and palpable chilling effect on online discourse, surpassing previous government attempts to increase control over social media,” the survey found.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique