Taiwan moved up three places to No. 42 in this year’s World Press Freedom Index, released yesterday by Reporters Without Borders.
The ranking is the highest among Asian nations, the Paris-based watchdog said.
The report, which ranks 180 nations and regions, said the deterioration of press freedom in China, ranked 176th, has triggered crackdowns on the media in other Asian nations.
Photo: EPA
Hong Kong climbed three places to No. 70, as it has been resisting China’s burgeoning influence on the press, as does Taiwan, it said.
However, Taiwan’s score fell 1.01 points from last year to 24.36, due mainly to the threat of China’s “growing economic and political pressure” on local media, the report said.
Taiwanese officials have also “interfered directly in the editorial policies of state-owned media,” it said.
The 10 nations with the freest press are Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, Jamaica, Belgium, New Zealand, Denmark and Costa Rica, according to the report.
North Korea was ranked last, behind Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Syria, China and Vietnam, it said.
The US fell two places to No. 45 one year into US President Donald Trump’s presidency.
Japan climbed five places to No. 67, while South Korea shot up 20 places to 43rd, as the election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has brought about “a breath of fresh air,” the report said.
Singapore was unchanged at No. 151, it said.
Malta’s press freedom ranking fell by 18 notches to 65th following the murder in October last year of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist who exposed the corruption of global leaders with her work about the Panama Papers.
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
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
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
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