The popularity of microblogging triggered a heated debate among senior journalists, industry experts and academics at a cross-strait journalism conference organized by the Mainland Affairs Council on Wednesday.
Peng Xiaoyun (彭曉芸) of Response, a monthly magazine owned by China’s Guangzhou Daily group, said it was the “virtual links” among netizens, formed through information and opinion-sharing, that has boosted the worldwide phenomenon.
Microblogs serve as platforms for people to generate collective sympathy on social affairs or initiate civil movements, Peng said.
“The existence of microblogs make up what Chinese society lacks, such as freedom of the press,” she said, adding that this was why “microblogging reached boiling point” over the July 23 bullet train collision in Wenzhou, China, that killed 35 people.
The blogosphere erupted when it was discovered how the Chinese authorities tried to cover up the accident, even going so far as to bury the derailed trains.
Microblogs are more flexible than conventional media channels in terms of freedom of speech, Peng said, adding: “Blasting the ruling party on microblogs is no longer something that is new, and there’s no risk in doing so, either.”
On microblogs, emotions are magnified, she said. For example, when surfing microblogs, it is possible for people to think China will soon undergo a revolution.
“But when you actually visit a local market, you find that nothing has happened,” she said.
Kuo Jia (郭嘉), a doctoral candidate at Peking University, said “citizen journalism” is what makes microblogging attractive.
“In the citizen journalism era, ‘why did something happen?’ is more important than ‘what happened?’” he said
Cheng Tzu-leong (鄭自隆), a professor of advertising at National Chengchi University, said media workers should be prudent when using microblog sources, and they should respect copyright and avoid using sources from commercial microblogs.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods