Media hushed about `Next' attack

Early last week authorities announced that they had arrested three suspects who recently smashed computers and windows at Next magazine's Taipei office.

While the attack on the office was one of the most agressive against the media for years, the reaction from local media organizations has been surprisingly muted. So muted, in fact, that the strongest response has come from a foreign organization rather than from Taiwan.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) sent a letter to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to ask the Taiwan government to make sure authorities' investigation into the attack was professional.

"As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, CPJ is alarmed by this criminal attack on Taiwan Next ? thereby sending a clear message that attacks against the press will not be tolerated," the committee said in its letter to Chen.

The Association of Taiwan Journalists responded to the incident in a statement released on the eve of Journalist's Day, one week after three gangsters wielding baseball bats smashed windows, computers and furniture in the office.

In the name of morality

The mild response was a far cry from protests the group held outside of the Executive Yuan in 1995 to protest threats made against reporters.

Media observers and scholars explained that competition, the magazine's background and its paparazzi style are the main reasons Taiwan's media have done little to protest the act of vandalism.

Ho Jung-hsing (何榮幸), the former executive editor of Media Watch, said that few are willing to stand up on the magazine's behalf because its sales are seriously cutting into the business of other magazines.

"It's a complicated situation for local media. To defend themselves, local media are naturally united and attack the magazine in the name of morality," Ho said.

Since publishing its first edition at the end of May, Next magazine has quickly gained the reputation of testing the limits of what can be written. It is also challenging the more conservative opinion of most major media groups in Taiwan that readers only care about political news.

Ho said that as the magazine continues to challenge Taiwan's media, the local media have gone on the defensive.

Ho believes this could happen anytime a foreign magazine enters a local market.

While many have criticized Next magazine's paparazzi approach, Taiwan's media has followed the magazine's controversial articles and local TV news channels have broadcast videotapes the magazine has offered over the past three months.

Before the magazine became part of Taiwan's media market, broadcast media had been producing paparazzi-like news pieces for commercial competitiveness since 1994, the year the government lifted the ban on establishing cable television stations.

Sensationalism

Feng Chien-san (馮建三), a professor at National Chenhchi University, said that Next magazine's paparazzi style just offers local media an excuse to hide their own violations on privacy.

"Local media hide their terrible coverage of sensationalized political news by blaming the magazine. Local media, however, never followed the reporters exposing local politicians' unscrupulous activities, which might be the real reason for the vandalism," Feng said.

What it all boils down to, some critics point out, is tight competition at a time when Taiwan's media are already suffering because of the economy.