It's a choice that a news reporter in the field, under deadline pressure, can suddenly and unexpectedly encounter: Should I risk my life to get a story or TV footage? Or should I play it safe, but face disappointment -- and reprimands -- from bosses back in the newsroom?
On Monday, Taiwan Television (TTV) reporter Alex Ping (
In light of Monday's tragedy, academics yesterday urged the heads of media organizations to set up clear orders and guidelines that reporters in the field can follow if they find themselves in a life-threatening situations.
"In regard to this incident, many people think that it was a misjudgment on Ping's part -- he insisted on holding on to his million-dollar camera equipment moments before his death," said Ma Li-chun (
Ma was Ping's instructor when he attended Nanhua University before being a news reporter. Ma, a former television news reporter, pointed out two consequences often faced by news reporters who fail to complete their job due to extreme situations.
"If a reporter misses out on a story because he tries to save his life, he may have to face the music by being reprimanded or being demoted by supervisors for not getting the story. Secondly, a reporter will have to pay for any damage of the equipment. Basically, a reporter is being punished for making his life a priority," said Ma.
Ma called for strict guidelines for news reporters, in which they will not be penalized for missing a story or have to pay for damaged or lost equipment when facing life-threatening danger on the job. Another academic called for a self-examination by media professionals.
"The overall competitiveness of the media forces reporters to cover stories in very dangerous areas or circumstances," said Kuang Chung-hsiang (
Kuang considers "braving-the-storm" images, which risk reporters' lives, a way to spice up a news story but unnecessary in many cases.
"The quality of news reporting and the amount of risk a reporter has to take in order to present a story are not positively correlated," the Campaign for Media Reform, of which Kuang is a member, pointed out in a public statement following Ping's death. Ma echoed that view.
"News reporters are not acrobats who have to perform stunts in order to please the audience," Ma said.
Another common view shared by academics was that such an incident should not be used to score political points.
"A legislator said today that Premier Yu Shyi-kun should take moral responsibility for Ping's death," said Lu Shih-hsiang (
The Ministry of Economic Affairs which scheduled Yu's visit to the flood diversion site on Monday morning, but the visit was cancelled due to fallen rocks that blocked the premier's motorcade, according to the Government Information Office.
Ma said government officials should be careful to select when to visit dangerous areas. "I am not saying that all government officials should hide in their homes while some professionals carry out their jobs in bad weather," said Ma. "However, officials should make sound judgments as to what events are worth showing up to ... Unnecessary visits to dangerous areas not only expose their own lives to danger, but also the lives of the reporters."
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching