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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS