In response to the DPP's demand that its lawmakers relinquish their posts in media organizations, the heads of the Northern Taiwan Society, the Central Taiwan Society and the Southern Taiwan Society suggested that media reform should go beyond removing party, political and military influences from terrestrial TV stations. They also argued that all-round complementary measures should be drawn up.
It must be pointed out that the media play an important role in a democracy and should be society's public instruments, rather than being inappropriately manipulated by political or business forces. Due to historical factors, however, Taiwan's media have long been controlled by political forces and the shadow of such control remains. The call to free the media from political and military influences is timely.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) demanded that his party members take the lead in stepping out of the media. His request might be criticized within the party as draconian or be interpreted as pandering to the public.
However, with this action as a model, people and the groups advocating social reform can therefore demand that other political parties or politicians follow suit. The KMT should also completely retreat from media operation, instead of continuing to control the media under the pretext that it has placed party assets in trust.
More importantly, freeing the media from political and military influences is just a step, not the ultimate goal, in media reform. Taiwan's media have veered toward monopolization, commercialization and an ideology-oriented direction while at the same time they are covetously eyed by China's investors. Under such circumstances, only requiring the withdrawal of political forces and moving the media toward liberalization are insufficient in the process of reform.
The reform must be based on the ideal structure of mass communications in democratic politics. For the sake of the sustainable development of Taiwan's democracy, the media should become neither a propaganda tool for a handful of politicians nor money-making machines for conglomerates. Rather, the media should serve the public and meet the people's needs for information, culture and education.
To put it more concretely, important media resources,?such as radio bandwidths, should be defined in policy-making and legislation as public assets, not in the possession of individuals, political parties or the government. The ownership structure of the media (cable TV channels, radio stations and newspapers, among others) should be diversified, offering all groups opportunities to participate and make their voices heard. The media operation should also be professionalized.
The above-mentioned public communication system aims at realizing the values of democracy, openness and pluralism.
In the long term, media literacy education should be promoted and people should be provided with mechanisms to balance and criticize the media.The social groups and individuals concerned about Taiwan should identify with these values and help establish the system.
Lin Lih-yun is an assistant professor in the department of journalism and communication studies at Fu Jen Catholic University.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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