International press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday said that it is to open its first Asia office in Taiwan, after the Paris-based organization rejected Hong Kong over concerns that China poses the “biggest threat” to press freedom.
Taiwan last year ranked 51st in the organization’s World Press Freedom Index, while Hong Kong was 69th and China 176th.
Recent incidents in Hong Kong — including the disappearance of five booksellers who were known for salacious titles about the Chinese leadership — have sparked fears that Beijing is choking the territory’s freedoms.
Hong Kong presented “real obstacles” for the watchdog to carry out its monitoring work, Chinese dissident Wuer Kaixi said.
“They wouldn’t be able to guarantee the safety of their staff,” said Wuer Kaixi, an Uighur student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests who now lives in exile in Taiwan and sits on RSF’s emeritus board.
He said he proposed Taiwan as an alternative, citing its boisterous and competitive media landscape.
“Freedom of speech and freedom of press is absolutely not an issue in Taiwan. What might be a problem is the threat from China,” he said.
“RSF realized that China is the biggest threat to press freedom, so it decided to shift its focus to Asia,” he added.
Taiwan was chosen not only because of its central geographic location and ease of operational logistics, but also due to its status as the top-ranking Asian nation in the watchdog’s annual rankings, RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.
“The opening of an East Asia office corresponds to the ongoing international expansion of our association and aims to better address the new challenges of media freedoms in this increasingly influential region of the world,” he said in a statement released late on Thursday.
The office in Taipei is also to cover other East Asian countries, including Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Mongolia.
In the statement, the organization said that its Taipei bureau would serve as a strategic platform to exercise influence and action on the multiple fronts in which it is engaged.
It cited areas such as advocacy on behalf of press rights, building awareness in support of specific campaigns, assistance to journalists and building capacity for journalists.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said the government welcomed the group’s decision and its appreciation of the nation’s contribution to press freedom and the protection of human rights.
The organization has the same spirit as Taiwan, Hsu said, adding that freedom of speech had a key role in the nation’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy and is an important core value in its democratic development.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also extended a welcome to RSF’s Taipei office, expressing hope that the organization could continue to fight for human rights, as well as freedom of speech and press.
The party also urged the organization to pay attention to and report on what it called controversial policies of the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), citing as examples a draft counterintelligence act, a draft transitional justice promotion bill and the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例).
“These highly contested draft bills violate human rights and freedom of expression and have raised concerns that the government is seeking to infringe on the public’s freedom of press or impede the operation of our democratic system,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hu Wen-chi (胡文琦) said.
RSF has 11 other offices worldwide — in Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm, Tunis, Vienna, Washington and Geneva.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
LONG-HELD POSITION: Washington has repeatedly and clearly reiterated its support for Taiwan and its long-term policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday said that Taiwan should not be concerned about being used as a bargaining chip in the ongoing US-China trade talks. “I don’t think you’re going to see some trade deal where, if what people are worried about is, we’re going to get some trade deal or we’re going to get favorable treatment on trade in exchange for walking away from Taiwan,” Rubio told reporters aboard his airplane traveling between Israel and Qatar en route to Asia. “No one is contemplating that,” Reuters quoted Rubio as saying. A US Treasury spokesman yesterday told reporters
RSS