The Government Information Office's (GIO) rejection of license renewals to seven cable-TV channels has brought about strong criticism from politicians and media proprietors over the past week, but academics specializing in mass communication as well as legal experts have given the move a thumbs-up.
Many see it as the beginning of a reform of a domestic mass media that has been vilified by audiences for years, and the start of a weeding-out of junk TV.
"I think the time is ripe for the government to do something to reform our mass media," Lin Yuan-hui (
"Actually, Taiwan's mass media has never really changed in nature even though martial law was lifted 17 years ago. Much of the media is still manufacturing news and stories with no sources at all," Lin said.
He said that the situation had actually become worse from increased commercial pressure.
"I believe that few people in Taiwan would disagree that the current news channels have become one of the major sources of social problems," Lin said.
"The public's toleration of fast-food news and shitty programs has reached its limit and I think the government's action was an appropriate response to public demand," he said.
The government's action also called the bluff of media operators such as Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG) president Gary Wang (王令麟), who has derided the government as a paper tiger, Lin said.
"These TV channel owners may be surprised that there was such a strong public outcry against their rubbishy news quality, but the most surprising thing is that the government would act for the public," Lin said.
"I would not object to describing the GIO's rejection of license renewal as a strategy of `executing one as a warning to a hundred,' which I think might be a necessary expedient to employ," Lin said. "Things have their order of priority and I believe the government has evaluated the advantages and disadvantages in making such a decision."
Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), a member of the GIO's committee in charge of reviewing TV channels' license renewal applications, said yesterday that she did not think manipulating license-renewal could really end the current malaise of the local media, but agreed that some structural control was needed at this point.
Lin is a professor at the Graduate Institute of National Development at National Taiwan University specializing in information and telecommunications law.
"A democratic country would definitely avoid implementing control over contents. But if the TV channel owners, under the name of press freedom, simply ignore their social responsibilities, then this would be another matter in terms of a definition of freedom," Liu said.
Facing accusations by pan-blue legislators that the committee members were "hired academics lacking professionalism," Liu said that she had suggested the GIO make public all the records, including transcripts of verbal discussions, regarding the review process. Media proprietors' statements that they promised to improve should also be shown on the Web so that people might be able to make an informed judgment on the facts.
Liu said that those TV channels that did not obtain licenses should check how different the programs they broadcast were from the proposals they submitted to the GIO six years ago to get the licenses in the first place.
"Media outlets that did not have their licenses renewed might accuse the government of trampling press freedom. But these media proprietors -- many of them are monopolists in the TV channel market -- should examine themselves as to the degree of freedom they offer their audiences as well," Liu said.
Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a research fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at Academia Sinica, said that it was a pity that the GIO's action was so widely interpreted from a political angle, which he described as understandable but not helpful.
"Although the course of the reviewing did not satisfy everyone and better prospects for the news environment are not yet assured, at least both the public and the TV channel bosses can see a mechanism for kicking out the rubbish" Hsu said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS