Since former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) decided to run for a legislative seat about a month ago, hardly a day has passed without the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA) covering his campaign.
The KMT nominated Su as its legislative candidate for the fourth district in Greater Tainan against Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was mayor of Tainan City from 2001 to last year, before the city was merged with Tainan county and upgraded into the municipality of Greater Tainan in December last year.
From July 26 to yesterday, CNA ran a total of 35 stories about Su, often with photographs. His name appeared in the headline a total of 19 times and in seven photographs, for reports on his campaign activities, while there were a further seven other reports about his views on various political issues.
Hsu received far less news coverage from CNA and no photographs were published.
A search of the news archive at the national news agency for the same period found that Hsu’s name was mentioned in passing in only eight stories, all of which had nothing whatsoever to do with his campaign.
Of the eight stories in question, three were from the 19 news reports on Su’s campaign in which Hsu was mentioned as his chief rival, the other five were only tangentially related to his election campaign.
CNA reported on Hsu displaying his wedding photographs, talking about his feelings toward his father in a radio interview on Father’s Day, urging voters to help promote the KMT administration and when he went on the campaign trail around the constituency to tout his election policies.
This disproportionate news coverage received by one candidate over another was reminiscent of the treatment received by New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT when running for the mayorship last year that led to CNA being ridiculed as nothing more than a “pro Chu blog.”
Asked to comment on this situation, Weber Lai (賴祥蔚), head of the graduate school of Applied Media Arts at National Taiwan University of Arts, said that an equal amount of media coverage for all candidates in an election was a principle that needed to be observed by all media outlets during an election, “particularly considering the fact that CNA is a national news agency.”
Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉), a professor at the Graduate Institute of Mass Communication at National Taiwan Normal University, also emphasized the importance of -candidates being treated fairly in the media because that is how most people get to know the candidates and their platforms.
The inherent bias of Taiwanese media outlets as they target their own specific audience and select content favorable to specific political viewpoints is a problem not just with CNA, but almost all media in Taiwan, Hu said.
Hu called on CNA, as a national news agency, to take the lead in presenting balanced reporting on the views of legislative candidates on issues of national interest.
CNA had not yet responded to the Taipei Times’ query as of press time last night.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS