Censorship from China, cyberbullying and the so-called “digital divide” are the biggest challenges confronting freedom of speech in Taiwan, Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) said.
Yeh made the remarks in a recent interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) ahead of the nation’s first-ever Freedom of Speech Day on Friday. The ministry last year declared the event would be observed every year on April 7.
Citing US rights watchdog Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World” report for this year that gave Taiwan the highest possible scores for political rights and civil liberties — the nation’s best showings since 2006 — Yeh said Taiwan had made great strides in its transformation from an authoritarian society that habitually censored free speech to a liberal democracy.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
However, infringements still persist, especially with regards to China’s censorship of Taiwanese freedom of expression in the political and economic spheres, Yeh said.
In addition, online bullying, the spread of fake news and the digital divide also pose challenges to the nation’s freedom of speech, he said.
The digital divide refers to disparities in Internet use that arise from demographics or geography.
In the past, authoritarian states attempting to control discourse were the major threats to freedom of speech, but in the modern era, powerful political or business elites are now attempting to control channels of communication and monopolize the sources of information, he said.
New forms of repression include Beijing’s insistence on celebrities and business owners publicly supporting its positions on Taiwan issues, he said, citing incidents involving Chi Mei Group founder Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍) and singer Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜).
“Forcing people to make political statements destroys their freedom to abstain from open political expression,” Yeh said.
Powerful hegemonic states such as China might also leverage the global system of free trade to put pressure on neighboring states and remove the free passage of foreign citizens through their national borders, Yeh said.
“Such situations are made possible by the special nature of cross-strait relations and its cost to free speech is a concern,” he said.
The creation of the virtual public space that has occurred over the past two decades has brought new challenges, such as cyberbullying, the dissemination of false information and the difficulty for Internet users to verify online data, he said.
In addition, a significant number of people in Taiwan and in other nations do not use the Internet, so they are unable to contribute to online public discourse, Yeh said, adding that the government should take an interest in the policy implications of the digital divide.
A public conference on the freedom of speech and the government’s relationship to it will be held at National Taiwan University on Friday, he said.
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