Last week, President Chen Shui-bian (
The main problem with the print media is that it sees everything from the "Taipei perspective." This in turn fosters contempt in southern and central Taiwan of this imposition of Taipei's metropolitan viewpoint on communities outside of the the greater Taipei area. This is the result of arrogance derived from intellect and power on the part of high-ranking media professionals cultivated by the former KMT administration.
As for television media, the problem is the explosion of "real time and live news" made possible by video and satellite technologies. This has been caused by conglomerate investment in TV. Anyone who has worked for big business would tell you the bottom-line reigns supreme: advertising revenues, dependent on viewership have taken precedence over journalistic principles, so violence- and sex-oriented content have become the mainstream.
The "Taipei perspective" is much more than media indifference to areas other than Taipei. It represents high-ranking media management who continue to oppose reforms, demonize politicians who favor nativization and either resist or negatively portray the trend of democratic reforms.
The "Taipei perspective" has historical roots in government-spokesperson appointments. Party and government officials appoint friends and relatives to fill media vacancies, placing the government and media stakeholders in bed with one another. Naturally, reportage has become rife with the ideologies of a certain elite, and reform efforts are criticized, negatively portrayed and challenged.
In the 1990s, after former president Lee Teng-hui (
Chen has taken media supervisors on tours of remote areas for three years in a row. His primary purpose is to make these professionals listen to grass-roots voices and see the vitality of this green island-nation. In this regard, the annual trip has been most meaningful.
While the DPP has said it supports media reform -- including the de-politicization, protection of press freedoms, and equal distribution of media resources -- since its opposition days, we find ourselves having to remind Chen that these ideals remain just that.
The government has followed the path of its predecessor by forgetting is role in an actual democracy. On the one hand, the government promises withdrawal of military and political influence from media management, so as to materialize press freedoms. On the other, it treats important positions in state-run media as rewards for DPP potentates.
We hope that as the president, who is also chairman of the DPP, asks the media to exercise self-discipline, he must also fulfill his party's promises. The Legislative Yuan will re-convene in September. Will the Executive Yuan actively lobby for the needed media reform? Will DPP members back out of the media? Can the president's promises on media reform become a reality? Everyone is waiting to see.
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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“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
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
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