Politicians and public servants should get out of media programming and be restricted from managing media or the producing and hosting of TV or radio programs, a media watch group yesterday said.
He Te-feng (賀德芬), president of Taiwan Media Watch Foundation (媒體觀察基金會) told a press conference at the Legislative Yuan yesterday that the tendency for public servants, election candidates elected officials to take part in media reporting or the production or hosting of TV and radio programs was "strangling the fair and detached stance that mass media is supposed to have."
He said that Taiwan's media situation had long been intertwined with political party and military interests. Of the three major terrestrial TV networks, TTV, CTV and CTS one is substantially owned by the KMT, one by the military and one by the government. All three, He said, are obviously favoring the KMT in election-related coverage, while the fourth terrestrial channel, FTV, the president of which is a member of the DPP's central standing committee, has shown a clear bias towards the DPP.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
He called on politicians to respect the independence of the fourth estate, while the foundation called for a petition to force political parties and public servants out of the media.
The group wants such regulations be included in the Political Party Law (政黨法) and the Civil Servant Conflict of Interest Prevention Bill (公職人員利益衝突迴避法). A proposal to do which will be reviewed in the legislature next Friday.
The proposal would restrict public servants and election candidates from holding posts as shareholders, directors or managers of media-related enterprises or from working as producers, anchorpeople or reporters. The government and political parties would also be prevented from investing in mass media enterprises.
DPP legislators Fan Sun-lu (
Other politicians and academics were, however, less enthusiastic about such restrictions.
Chen Shei-saint (陳學聖), a KMT legislator and current spokesman for the Lien Chan (連戰)-Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) presidential campaign said there could be forces other than politics that have been influencing Taiwan's media environment. Chen himself hosts various radio and TV programs, some of which are current affairs-based. He said there were media that were driven by commercial interests, and others by religious influences, "so political restriction cannot guarantee media independence."
"I have no answer for the question, but I also look forward to new plans for establishing a bias-free media," he said.
Chen said the most effective way to do this is through individual self-discipline. "When I host a program, I will adjust my criteria to maintain balance. And if I am biased, it would be reflected by the ratings of my program."
Su Herng (
She said that although maintaining an independent, interest-free media environment is a basic premise of media reform, in reality it is almost impossible to block politicians from media intervention. A longer-term direction is to make all media, including cable TV and the Internet, more diverse and accessible, she said.
In terms of legal regulation, Su said a notion of enhancing equal rights to use the media, rather than restriction, should be focused. Studies on European and Australian media regulation have shown a mechanism could be established to enhance accessibility, she said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS