Taiwan has the highest level of press freedom in East Asia, even though China seeks to influence its media narratives, according to the US government-funded Freedom House.
Freedom House, which says it is dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy, on Tuesday released a report titled Freedom and the Media: A Downward Spiral, which shows the press freedom score of 195 countries on a scale of zero to four.
The score indicates whether there is free and independent media in each country and evaluates media censorship, journalists’ freedom to report and government influence on the press.
Taiwan was the only East Asian country to receive the best score of four, which only 35 other countries received.
However, the Chinese government tries to influence Taiwan’s media narratives and undermine its electoral campaigns, the report said.
The report, citing the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, said that “fake news” stories and doctored images originating in China tainting the reputation of the government are spread widely on social media, with some picked up and reported as fact by Taiwanese news outlets.
Suspected Chinese government agents have made offers to buy popular pro-Taiwan Facebook pages, while recruitment advertisements for live streamers with pro-unification views have also emerged online ahead of next year’s presidential election, the report said.
To counter the potential negative effect of Beijing’s media influence campaigns, the report recommends policies that improve transparency about Chinese activities, including reporting requirements for spending on paid advertorials, ownership structures and other economic ties to the Chinese government.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS