President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday called on the Taiwanese media to act more discreetly when covering elections, citing the American media's coverage of the US presidential election as an example.
Chen made the remarks while receiving members of the Ketagalan Academy (
The president said he has been scrutinizing the vote-counting process and results in the US election.
"While I comprehend the intensity of the election, [this intensity] is sometimes produced by the media, as each media outlet has its own preferences and expectations," Chen said.
He said that, in the US as well as in Taiwan, electoral confusion and turmoil were sometimes the result of the media's coverage.
For example, Chen said, some US media outlets covering the 2000 US presidential election had jumped the gun by reporting that presidential candidate Al Gore had won, only to later revise their reports to announce that George W. Bush had been elected.
He said a similar scenario was played out in Taiwan during the March presidential election, when some media outlets exaggerated their exit poll figures.
"It leads one to wonder whether there would be less electoral disputes were it not for the factor of the media in the process," Chen said.
Chen said that "this time around, the US media outlets were mindful of the lesson learned [from the previous US election] and therefore took precautions against acting in haste."
"This is a sign of improvement from which Taiwanese media should learn," he said.
Chen also responded to remarks Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Lien accused Chen of committing fraud during the March 20 election and said that a person who committed such an act "deserved be killed by everyone."
"What kind of democratic manner is that, to accuse the president of imposture before the court has even delivered its verdict?" Chen said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS