Several civic groups yesterday urged the government to turn Taiwan Television (TTV) and Chinese Television Enterprise System (CTS) into public television stations to provide programs untainted by political and commercial influences.
"Making these stations public was President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) campaign promise, and it is also the normal development of Taiwan's media, as such a plan will promote cultural diversity in our society," said Kuan Chung-hsiang (管中祥), an assistant professor at Shih Hsin University's department of radio, TV and film and a member of the Campaign for Media Reform(
"The Government Information Office [GIO] should make careful planning of this idea so that the media will not be tainted again by commercialism or politics," Kuan said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Representatives from the Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ), the Awakening Foundation, Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the National Teacher's Association attended the press conference.
"There is a common misconception that privatization of media is an international trend. The truth is that countries such as New Zealand and South Korea have been putting in a lot of effort into their public television stations in recent years," Kuan said.
The groups proposed going beyond simply having a few more public TV stations to having a public radio and TV corporation.
They said they hoped the government would not only make TTV and CTS public, but do the same to Hakka and Aboriginal television stations, the Central Broadcasting System, Voice of Han Broadcasting Network, National Education Radio and the Police Radio Station.
They also urged political parties to return improperly obtained assets to radio and TV stations, and follow this up by uniting these stations into one giant corporation along with the Public Television Service Foundation (PTS).
Women's groups felt that privatization of TV stations is a way to recognize commercialism.
"We ought to promote cultural diversity in our society. Commercialism, however, hinders such progress. The eight major Hollywood movie production companies dominate our culture, as only few Taiwanese films are being played at cinemas here," said Hsu Hsiu-wen (
An ATJ representative said news reported by public TV stations is more reliable.
"For instance, PTS was the only news station to report the true ballot count during March 20 presidential election," said Ray Chang (
Chang pointed out that a high-ranking official of NHK, Japan's national public TV station, had once stated that the station's ratings climb whenever a natural calamity strikes Japan.
"It shows that viewers have more faith in the news reporting of a public TV station," he said.
"It is a good illustration of the point that TV news reporting becomes more trustworthy once the station is made into a public one," Chang said.
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