Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai (黎智英) yesterday accused the Taiwanese government of increasingly seeking to control the media and “failing” to provide for freedom of expression.
“The way a government treats its media critics is the true test of whether it truly supports a free press. By that standard, Taiwan is failing,” Lai, chairman of Next Media Group, wrote in the Wall Street Journal Asia yesterday.
He said the government under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had undertaken several initiatives to rein in the nation’s once-vibrant media.
REJECTIONS
The government has turned down applications by Next Media for a cable TV licence and stepped up “embedded marketing ... the practice by which the government pays for propaganda articles to appear as news reports,” Lai said.
“Viewed in isolation, each of these developments might be written off as misguided, if well-intentioned, efforts,” Lai said. “Taken as a whole, however, they look more like a program to increase government control over the media.”
Next Media applied in August last year for licences for a news channel, a general interest channel, an entertainment channel, a sports channel and a movie channel.
The National Communications Commission has turned down the request twice and it has only allowed the sports and movie channels to air.
CONCERNS
The commission claims there are concerns the channel’s broadcasts would violate the Regulations Governing the Classification of Television Programs (電視節目分級處理辦法).
DROPS
In this year’s edition of the Freedom of the Press survey published by Washington-based NGO Freedom House, Taiwan shared the 47th spot with countries such as Poland and Spain. It slipped from 43rd place in last year’s survey.
China was ranked No. 181 out of 196 countries surveyed in the Freedom House report.
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