People should be worried about the independence of local media as it carried a large amount of embedded marketing paid for by the central government or China, the Foundation for the Advancement of Media Excellence said on Monday.
The foundation cited US watchdog Freedom House’s recent report on media freedom, which concluded that it was worrisome that Taiwanese newspapers inserted news stories from Chinese state media and published news reports paid for by Chinese authorities without informing readers.
Such practices harmed people’s right to knowledge and could easily affect the local media’s independence, it said.
About 200 “ads” paid by Chinese government agencies were published in local newspapers last year, 119 of which were published following the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China in June 2010, said the foundation’s report, which was released last month.
Moreover, Taiwan’s five biggest local newspapers published a total of 1,349 government advertisements in the second half of last year, the foundation’s report said.
In December last year — in the run-up to the Jan. 14 presidential election — the number of ads seen to favor the government reached 295, the highest monthly figure of the second half of last year, it said.
The Taipei City Government, for example, advertised the 2017 Universiade — which it will be hosting — and a major road project 26 times last month, with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) photo appearing on more than 10 of the ads.
Other political figures, such as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), were also frequently seen in similar government ads, the foundation said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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