Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday said he would pen a protest letter to Freedom House over its latest report alleging he meddled with news content while at the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA).
The Washington-based political and human rights watchdog this week released a full version of Freedom in the World 2010 that included individual country reports.
On Taiwan, the report said the placement of information by the government has become a major problem in Taiwan’s news media and that some personnel changes in certain state-owned media have raised concerns of political interference. As an example, the report cited Lo’s appointment in October 2008 as vice president at CNA shortly after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May 2008. CNA employees, the report said, received instructions to alter the content of some reports to dilute criticism of the government.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lo was one of the three main spokespersons for Ma during the latter’s presidential election campaign in 2008.
He took the post of Presidential Office spokesman on March 1.
Lo yesterday said he had had no hand in news reporting or processing during his tenure at the CNA.
He said that Freedom House should not have included accusations made by people with ulterior motives in its report for Taiwan without consulting the people involved.
Lo said CNA had already responded to such accusations in 2008, saying that there had been no inappropriate interference.
He said that his role as CNA vice president was an administrative one that placed him in charge of business operations and legal affairs, as well as assisting the agency’s president in handling administrative matters. Lo said that he had no responsibility for how news was processed, including interviews, editing and publication of reports.
He also said that any accusation in the Freedom House survey that he had interfered inappropriately in CNA’s news processing was untrue. He added that if Freedom House needed any further explanation from him, he would be willing to speak with them directly.
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