Western news outlets are increasingly turning to Chinese nationals sympathetic to the Chinese government for reporting in the region amid a sharp decline in the number of foreign journalists in Taiwan, industry figures said yesterday, adding that such developments are leading to either skewed coverage or little to no coverage at all of Taiwan by Western media.
A recent string of allegedly biased reports on Taiwan by such big-name Western media organizations as CNN, The Associated Press (AP) and the Economist have sparked an outcry from all quarters. That reporting was again attacked by media figures yesterday at a forum hosted by the Broadcasting Development Fund, a private media watchdog known for its pro-pan-green-camp views.
"Lee Ming [李閩] is Hong Kong Chinese," said fund director Connie Lin (
"Lee may have studied or even grown up in the US, but he obviously harbors biases in his reporting that favor Beijing," she said.
Lee's reporting underscores the consequences of a swelling legion of Chinese journalists in Western news outlets who churn out pro-Beijing articles, she added.
A Japanese national once blacklisted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government while working as a Kyoto News reporter, Sakai Toru -- now a freelance writer based in Taipei -- questioned Western media's motives in consistently reporting news on Taiwan from Beijing's perspective.
"Why don't the Western media report on US President George W. Bush from a Middle Eastern perspective? -- such as `The leader widely known as the scum of the world made a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday.' Or why, when reporting on Chinese President Hu Jintao [胡錦濤], can't Hu be referred to according to his ranking as the world's fourth-worst dictator?" Sakai said.
`Scum of the Nation'
Paul Tsai (
"The article isn't in keeping [with an otherwise acceptable track record]," Lu said of AP.
Panelists also lamented what they called a steady drain of foreign journalists from Taiwan, saying that while China's view on the country dominates Western coverage of cross-strait affairs, fewer foreign journalists are sticking around to report from Taipei's perspective.
"There are only 20 to 30 foreign journalists here now," Tsai said.
Speaking to the Taipei Times by phone yesterday, Taipei Foreign Correspondents' Club president Kathrin Hille said that although major Western news publications are no longer dispatching as many "staffers" to the country, "I don't think the total number of [foreign journalists] has declined. That always happens in news markets that matter less," she said of the thinning ranks of permanent correspondents from big-name media organizations. "Look, news is a market -- media serve to give their audiences what they think they're interested in and right now, everybody's interested in China," Hille said.
Pragmatic
"There's a need for people to read what you write and getting into a story from the China angle helps to ensure that," she added. "Taiwan's significance is declining."
"But, in a way, that's a good thing -- that means no disasters are coming out of this place," she said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai