Media asked to treat government fairly

The relationship between the government and media is bound to be confrontational, but people must remember both groups serve the public interest, Taiwan's first journalist-turned-government spokesman, Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平), said yesterday.

"In a free society, it is inevitable that the relationship between government and media is both cooperative and tense," Su said in remarks in commemorating Journalists' Day, which is today

"[I] never expect government officials to get along swimmingly with reporters. All I've asked for is [reporters'] fair treatment [of government officials]," Su said while speaking with local reporters yesterday afternoon.

He said that, having worked for the media for years, he fully respected any critique made by journalists of the government's policies.

However, government should also have the right to reserve its responses to unreal and distorted reportage, he said.

Su, 51, was editor-in-chief at the Independence Morning Post (自立早報) and chief editorial writer at the Taiwan Daily (台灣日報) before he took up his current Cabinet post. He was also considered a dissident by the former KMT government, which blacklisted him and once blocked his return from Germany when he studied there prior to 1980.

Su has long devoted himself to media reform and he helped co-found the Association of Taiwan Journalists (台灣記者協會) in 1995.

With a background of anti-government and journalistic idealism, Su's role reversal was considered strange by many journalists. But yesterday he downplayed the role reversal as "his making a personal choice that is different from others."

"Professional criteria vary from job to job," he said, adding that the job requirements of a government spokesman varied from those of a journalist.

Su did not elaborate on those differences.

He had previously said that "the devil is in the details," seemingly encouraging all journalists to dig into details until the truth is found. However, yesterday he criticized reporters in Taiwan for taking many details too seriously and overlooking the big picture.

"[It's not healthy] unless those details are meaningful," he said.

He said that he agreed with reporters who weave a web of truth by putting all the details of a puzzle together, but he also disagreed with reporters' requests to government officials to help solve the puzzle by addressing all reporters' needs.

"It's always the government's stance to not to leak any information out if the information is supposed to be kept confidential," Su said, adding that, at such times, relationships between the government and the media can be confrontational.

Defending the government's role, Su said: "compared to other democratic countries, [you] can't find any premier that is as open [to the media] as Premier [Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄)]."

He promised to do his best to serve both media and government as they both serve the people and the public interest.