Strange as it may seem, Chu Mei-feng (
A hidden camera captured Chu and her married lover in a very private act. Scoop Weekly obtained the steamy footage and bundled VCDs with its cover-story issue on Chu. The wanna-be legislator quickly became a household name in Taiwan and abroad, thanks to the Internet. When prosecutors searched Scoop Weekly's offices and confiscated copies of the controversial issue, the magazine protested that the government was suppressing press freedom.
Details about Taiwan's national security maneuvers over the past decade received a similar airing before the people of Taiwan and the international community, after someone in the National Security Bureau apparently leaked classified documents about the bureau's secret accounts. When prosecutors searched Next magazine's offices and printing plant, confiscating copies of the issue carrying articles about those accounts, the magazine also claimed that press freedom was being impinged.
Both incidents triggered huge debates over balancing press freedom and the right to privacy and national security concerns. But the debates cannot be boiled down to a question of whether the right to privacy or national security is more important than press freedom. The question should be what are the choices for reporters, editors and the government when these two values collide.
In Chu's case, her affair with a married man may have offended many people's sense of decency, but that does not negate the fact that she was a victim of the worst kind of voyeurism. Scoop Weekly and those who posted footage of her on the Internet abused her right to privacy in her own home.
The media's release of classified documents detailing diplomatic channels and maneuvers between Taiwan, Japan and the US during the 1996 missile crisis has effectively cut off all those channels and exposed intelligence officers to personal danger. Publishing reports critical of a government's actions are one thing. Publishing details that could cost lives is another.
How to deal with freedom of information issues and privacy issues is something that every democracy has to deal with. Every government would like to keep its missteps from public view, just as it is a rare person who is always willing to proclaim "I goofed." But not every government secret is a matter of national security. Finding the right balance is not an easy task, for either a government or the media.
Look at the debate in the US when the New York Times and Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers. The public good was served when the US government failed in its effort to suppress the papers' publication. Reporting on public policy issues or scandals, however, is one thing, naming undercover operatives is another. Responsible media are willing to not to disclose names or details that might harm national security. The cut-throat competition to break a story cannot be used as an excuse for shoddy reporting or editing.
The KMT used the Taiwan Garrison Command (
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
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