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More journalists shifting to politics

""The involvement of more and more media professionals in politics is an unhealthy circumstance for politics in Taiwan."

Emile Sheng, a political science professor at Soochow University

The opening of the December mayoral and city councilor elections' registration yesterday highlighted the fact that more and more media professionals are moving into the political arena -- a move that has academics and media watch-dog organizations worried about the impact the future of Taiwan's

democracy.

Wang Yu-cheng (王育誠), a well-known TV news show host and a 11-year veteran of social news reporting, is a PFP nominee for the Taipei City Council.

There are also two reporters and one anchorwoman among the 15 PFP nominees for seats on the city council. The PFP says it thinks the four are appropriate nominees, while the reporters-turned-candidates emphasized that being politicians would make them entitled to solve the problems that they have seen in Taipei for a long time.

"Society's problems can only be solved by those who sense them," Wang said.

Wang Shin-yi (王欣儀), a former anchorwoman for Power TV and a former assistant to PFP Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安), one of the PFP nominees, said deciding to quit her media job was a difficult one for her, "but there must be somebody involved in the difficult job of a politician to solve problems for voters."

That explanation, however, was given short shrift by academics and media experts.

"The involvement of more and more media professionals in politics is an unhealthy circumstance for politics in Taiwan," said Emile Sheng (盛治仁), a political science professor at Soochow University.

Sheng explained that the media have the responsibility to objectively monitor the operations of the political world and the active involvement in politics by journalists would shake this objectivism.

In the past decade, there have been at least 40 reporters who have switched careers to politics.

Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳), who gained notoriety in a sex-VCD scandal, was a reporter and anchorwoman for Taiwan Television.

PFP Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) was an anchorwoman and reporter with Chinese Television System before she ran for a seat on the Taipei City Council and won.

KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖), Central Personnel Administration Director-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), and PFP legislative leader Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧), were reporters from the China Times, a leading Chinese-language daily, while the PFP's Secretary-General David Chung (鍾榮吉), was a reporter for the United Daily News about a decade ago.

Political observers say the close personal connections that reporters and anchors form with politicians could contribute to becoming politically active.

The public recognition that reporters and anchors enjoy could be helpful for their campaigns. But, whether that fame transfers into votes is not clear.

"Chu Mei-feng told me that she wanted to improve Taiwan's media and society by being a politician. But she obviously failed to fulfill what she said," said Lu Shih-xiang (盧世祥), former editor in chief of the Economic Daily and an adviser to the Association of Taiwan Journalists.

He said that the further development of this trend would turn the media into a political tool.

"It's not necessary for the media to oppose politics, but the relationship between the two should not be so close," Lu said.

Fang Nien-hsuan (方念萱), a journalism professor at National Chengchi University, said that every individual has the right and freedom to choose whether to get involved in politics, but she was concerned about the trend, given that Taiwan's media is not mature or healthy enough.

"I am looking forward to the development of professional reporters in Taiwan who look at journalism as their life-long careers," Fang said.
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