While participating in a conference held by a media watchdog group, the acting head of the Department of Health Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) yesterday said that he hoped he would be the last victim of the local media's inaccurate and unbalanced reports.
While Twu is still considering whether to file suits against some of the media organizations that he says damaged his reputation, the Foundation for the Advancement of Media Excellence (新聞公害防治基金會)yesterday held a conference to discuss how to improve media's poor performance. The group concluded that a restrictive mechanism should be established.
Representatives from other media watchdog organizations, such as the Association of Taiwan Journalists (台灣記者協會), the National Press Council (新聞評議會) and the Taiwan Media Watch Foundation (台灣媒體觀察基金會), all agreed that Taiwanese media has abused the freedom of speech, which they believe should be restricted by society or the government.
Oct. 1, the local Chinese-language media reported allegations by Cheng Ko-jung (鄭可榮) that Twu kissed him against his will during an event at a KTV parlor celebrating Twu's promotion at the DOH. The allegations also stated that Twu licked Cheng's ears.
Most of the reports devoted ample time to details offered by PFP Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) and Cheng without checking their accuracy, while many of the reporters urged Twu to concede his harassment to Cheng in TV news talk shows.
But, four days later, Tu Hau-lin (屠豪麟), the section chief of the Department of Health's personnel department, turned out to be the man Cheng was accusing of sexual harassment.
Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華), chairman of the Taipei Society (澄社), which suggests the government set up an objective mechanism appraising the media's performance, said "The media has totally ignored that the right to freedom is not inclusive of damaging another's freedom."
Despite not specifying how to restrict the media's performance, Arthur Iap (葉國興), the GIO's director general, agreed that there should a heteronomous mechanism restricting the media when it is incapable of restricting itself.
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