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FEATURE: Media experts recall era of newspaper restrictions

Former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung, left, is pictured on his release from prison in 1985. The reporting of the murder of Lin's mother and twin daughters in 1980 was symptomatic of the problems associated with news coverage during the ban on new newspapers that ran for 37 years beginning in 1951, experts said yesterday. PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, LIBERTY TIMES

It has been 20 years since the ban on new newspapers was lifted, but the press still fails to serve as defenders of the public interest as they are dependent on the state, advertisers, businesses or their owners, media experts said yesterday.

In 1951, the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government imposed strict restrictions on the registration of newspapers, magazines and news agencies, "to forbid dissidents from owning presses," said Lin Lih-yun (林麗雲), an associate professor at National Taiwan University.

Not until Jan. 1, 1988, was the ban rescinded, a year after the lifting of martial law.

The ban included restrictions on applications for the registration of a newspaper, a limited number of pages in a newspaper and the stipulation that a newspaper must be printed and published in the place where the application for its registration was submitted, Lin said.

The ban was implemented by the Taiwan Garrison General Headquarters -- the security institution responsible for administering martial law. In addition to written rules, more pressure came in the form of background checks on reporters and monitoring of their every word and deed.

EYE ON THE MEDIA

"To control media reports, not only did the Taiwan Garrison publicly set up news offices in each newspaper, its agents were asked to report back on what journalists had said or done at any time," said Chen Shun-shaw (陳順孝), a journalism lecturer at Fu Jen Catholic University.

Huang Yi (黃怡), a former senior reporter who has worked for the Chinese-language China Times since the period of the ban, said that "Journalists at that time all knew full well that we were under surveillance by undercover agents from the Taiwan Garrison."

"Regardless of their beat -- politics, society, judiciary or whatever, a reporter's name was quickly added to a list at the headquarters if they ever cast doubt on the government ... and some reporters were put in jail for no reason in the 1950s," Huang said.

Huang said that as a result, "It's fair to say that there lived an invisible Taiwan Garrison in every reporter's mind. If you wanted to keep your job, you had to speak and act cautiously."

A good example of the treatment was the transfer of Antonio Chiang (司馬文武), former editor-in-chief of the Taipei Times, from the foreign affairs beat at the China Times after he returned from attending a pro-independence gathering abroad in 1970s, she said.

The restrictions contributed to the emergence of various dangwai magazines during the process of democratization, Huang said, adding: "The most important mission of the dangwai magazines was to show the public the stories that weren't allowed to be published in newspapers."

Lin described the link between the newspapers and the KMT regime as "patron-client relationships" while the ban was in effect.

During the era, there were 20 privately owned and 11 state-owned newspapers, with the two biggest -- the Chinese-language United Daily News and the China Times -- together occupying two-thirds of the market in terms of advertising and circulation.

"Almost all owners of private newspapers were affiliated with the ruling clan. Being given charters, the newspapers went along and become government mouthpieces," Lin said.

The most famous instance of media control was the coverage of the Lin family murders (林宅血案). The mother and twin daughters of former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) were killed at home on Feb. 28, 1980, while Lin I-hsiung was in custody for joining a pro-democracy rally.

The China Times ran a story quoting the twin's older sister Lin Huan-chin (林奐均), who survived with severe injuries, saying that the murderer was an uncle who had been to her home often.

Huang said that Yu Chi-chung (余紀忠), the paper's founder, insisted on running the story based merely on a claim by his reporter Nan Fang-shuo (南方朔), who said that he had "heard it from someone," despite the fact that "there was no other person saying he had heard the same thing."

"No matter what kind of stories were published at that time, they reflected the ruling group's political intentions," she said. "To create an impression that the murder was committed by Lin I-hsiung's pro-independence comrades and not the KMT, the newspapers made up many groundless stories."

The industry has flourished since the lifting of the restrictions in 1988, with the number of newspapers jumping to 360 within a year, followed by the subsequent opening up of television channels.

SLOW TO CHANGE

Hsieh San-tai (謝三泰), a senior photojournalist who worked for the now defunct Independent Evening News since before the newspaper ban was imposed, said that in the first few years after the lifting of the ban very limited progress was made regarding freedom of the press.

Hsieh recalled how when taking a photo of Soong Hsin-lian (宋心濂), then chief of the National Security Bureau, at a KMT party convention late 1980s, Soong's bodyguards suddenly headed straight towards him, snatched his camera and took away his negatives.

"It was the first time Soong had made a public appearance and it was newsworthy to let readers know what the head of the intelligence agency looked like, but I was then placed under strict surveillance for the remainder of the event," Hsieh said.

Although the newspaper restrictions were lifted in 1988, the Publication Law (出版法) was not repealed until Jan. 12, 1999.

The Publication Law contained provisions imposing various forms of punishment on publications for breaches of the regulations. In a 1958 amendment, a provision that empowered the government to revoke the registration of a publication was added to the law.

"With the progress of democratization, the government's power over newspapers is fading away, but newspapers are now subject to the political and commercial interests of their owners," said Lu Tung-hsi (呂東熹), deputy manager of the News Department of Taiwan Public Television Service.

Chen said that the degree advertising clients can influence the newspapers is "comparable" to the restriction period.

"It often happens that advertisers ask newspapers to omit news that is unfavorable to their enterprises or run stories advantageous to them by threatening to withdraw their advertising," Chen said.

What's worse, he said, is that newspapers often publish stories which have little to do with the public interest and are actually promotional ads so they can earn a sum of money in return, a deal known as "product placement."

It's a regrettable thing that once there were media personnel who showed bravery in the face of totalitarianism, only to start bowing to advertiser pressure, Chen said.

Huang said that not only do businesses try to take command of newspapers by using product placement, "the government has also learned how to use the method to control the press."

Just because no special laws and regulations restricting newspapers exist after the abolishment of the Publication Law doesn't mean that newspapers are independent from the state, as political power takes different forms in newspapers, Huang said.

"Aside from product placement, the government financially supports several major newspapers," Huang said, adding that her comments were based on research by lawmakers.

Reviewing the influence of the 37-year-long restrictions on the development of newspapers in the country, Lin Lih-yun said that the result is that "Newspapers failed to raise public awareness on a number of issues related to social concerns."

`READER-CENTERED'

Before the publication of the Chinese-language Apple Daily, from Hong Kong, the country's traditional newspapers never took a "reader-centered approach," Lin Lih-yun said.

Lin Lih-yun said that the main problem was that the owners of newspapers always "put their ideological positions ahead of professional journalism," especially when it comes to political news, because they believe that "only by doing so can they retain their readership."

"But what happens is that when newspapers lose their objectivity, they lose more readers," she said.

For the Apple Daily, Lin Lih-yun said that although it cares more about what readers want than other newspapers, it treats newspapers like a "commodity" and believes that only the stories that readers prefer to read are newsworthy and thus doesn't focus on serious issues.

Lin Lih-yun suggested the government establish an environment that would foster relatively small newspapers.

For example, she said, the government could start a public circulation network, which in a market dominated by the several large newspapers could ensure the pluralism of opinion, she said.
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