President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) seems to be playing favorites with local media, again. This time, to promote the meeting between China’s Association on Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) and Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤).
Ma irritated many reporters back in March when, of the 38 local media outlets, only four print media reporters were chosen to ask questions during his first press conference following his presidential election victory, while only 10 TV reporters found favor with Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦).
The four media outlets were the Chinese-language China Times, China Times online, The Journalist and China Review News.
This time around, media outlets were again handpicked by Ma during his promotion of the Chiang-Chen meeting.
On Oct. 24, Ma gave an interview to the state-run Central News Agency (CNA). The second interview was given to TVBS on Oct. 29 and the third with ETTV on Oct. 31. Yesterday, he gave three separate interviews to the China Times, United Daily News and the Apple Daily. The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) was not on the list.
Ma had originally declined all interview requests by the media. At the time, Wang said it was because Ma met the press corps on a regular basis and it would be unfair to all other local media outlets if any interview was given at all.
Ma has met the local press corps only twice since he took office in May.
When asked by the Taipei Times if and when local English-language media outlets would have a chance to interview the president, Wang said “when there is proper issue to discuss.”
He also said the readers of Taipei Times were “only the foreigners in Taiwan.”
Association of Taiwan Journalists chairman Leon Chuang (莊豐嘉) said that although it was understandable that politicians use the media to serve their own interests, it deprives the media of their right to report if interviews are being handed out selectively.
Taking Ma’s interview with the CNA on Oct. 24 as an example, Chuang said it was an overt attempt to use the state-run agency to preempt the demonstration organized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and other pro-localization groups the following day.
“Saying the president has regular meetings with the local media is just an excuse to reject the media’s requests for interviews,” Chuang said.
Ma began changing his tactics and gave interviews to selected local media after he realized that he and his administration had to counter the opposition’s negative view on the imminent meeting between the cross-strait negotiators, Chuang said.
In order to do that, Chuang said, Ma picked media outlets that his administration believed were not only friendly, but also influential.
“It is hard to criticize him really, because he has limited time and energy,” Chuang said.
Chuang, however, emphasized that it seemed that Ma has totally alienated the local English-language media, which he suspects Ma thinks are unimportant or unnecessary.
“What it comes down to is his attitude and sincerity,” Chuang said. “Does he care at all about the foreigners in Taiwan, who are a minority and don’t have the right to vote.”
Media Watch chairman Kuang Chung-shiang (管中祥) urged Ma to treat both Chinese-language and the local English-language media equally.
“It is necessary for him to explain how he selects which outlets get interviews,” he said. “Or the public will think that he only picks those media who are friendly to him.”
Kuang added, however, that it was true all around the world that politicians show favoritism to certain media for the sake of serving their own interests.
“It is understandable, but it is not right,” he said. “It is something that is not normal in a democratic society.”
Although Ma may meet the local press corps on a regular basis, Kuang said that was not enough because the media’s responsibility is to scrutinize the performance of the government.
“As he is the president of the Republic of China [ROC], he should be examined by the ROC’s media,” Kuang said.
Kuang said it would be interesting to see whether Ma would give interviews to pro-localization media outlets, such as the Liberty Times, SETTV and Formosa TV.
“If he is smart, he should give interviews to other media outlets who have different views from his own,” Kuang said.
Hung Chen-ling (洪貞玲), a journalism professor at National Taiwan University, agreed that Ma should hold more regular press conferences and meetings with the media so that he can offer a clear account of the government’s polices.
Hung, however, noted that the former DPP administration did not fair much better. It was all very well for the Presidential Office to say it wants to treat the media fairly, she said, but that must apply to Chinese and English-language media.
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