The foundation appointed by the government to evaluate the media's performance in covering news yesterday insisted that it would still carry out the task, even if the government didn't support it.
The comment came after the Cabinet yesterday abandoned a controversial Government Information Office (GIO) proposal to evaluate the media's performance.
"The incident motivates me to closely watch the media's performance," said Lu Shih-xiang (盧世祥), founder of the Foundation for Prevention of Public Damage by the Media (新聞公害防治基金會), which was appointed by the GIO for the NT$950,000 project.
"Most of the reports on this controversy do not include our opinions, which means they failed to balance their reports," he said.
He also said that most of the reports on the matter had failed to name and confirm their sources.
"As a retired journalist, I understand some sources decline to be identified, but clearly naming sources is the most basic task of journalists," Lu said.
Lu gave the example of a China Times article published on Tuesday suggesting that political considerations had influenced the decision to choose the foundation to monitor the media. The story quoted an anonymous source from the National Press Council of the ROC, which has been doing the job for the GIO for the past few years.
The National Press Council, founded in 1974, focused on violent and pornographic content rather than political bias in news.
On Feb. 18, the council lost out to the foundation, which was set up last year, for the monitoring project .
Fang Nien-hsuan (
Fang said that the media had mistakenly reported that two professors had judged the bids, showing that the reporters had failed to confirm their facts.
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