Sooner or later fake news will be exposed, and sooner or later any dragged-out affair will come to an end.
On Nov. 18, the National Communications Commission (NCC) reached a unanimous decision to reject CTi News’ license renewal application on the grounds that the channel’s frequent contraventions of media regulations showed that it has a malfunctioning internal control mechanism that cannot be rectified.
Since the decision, the station and its supporters have taken a series of actions, but they have only managed to shoot themselves in the foot.
The day after the NCC’s decision, the Association of Taiwan Journalists said that although satellite broadcast television stations enjoy constitutionally protected freedom of expression, they also enjoy broadcast frequencies, channels and other resources granted to them by the government, so they should establish the internal controls and self-regulatory mechanisms stipulated by the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視).
Media companies should prevent interference in their news operations to protect their professionalism, autonomy and self-regulation, the association said in its statement.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Nov. 20 said that while it was regrettable that CTi News’ license had not been renewed, it was not a case of infringment on the freedom of expression.
CTi News department chief director Liang Tien-hsia (梁天俠) — who at a public hearing admitted to being a member of the same WeChat group as Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), CTi News’ largest shareholder, and that they chat — said in a response to the RSF’s statement that the content quoted by the group was not true, and asked it to act with dignity.
CTi News even ran a news report with the headline “Blind support of the NCC! Taiwan branch of Reporters Without Borders criticized for turning from overseer to enabler.”
Every year, RSF — an international non-governmental organization — publishes the World Press Freedom Index.
Between 2013 and 2018, Taiwan ranked first in the Asia-Pacific region, but in this year’s index, published on April 21, it fell to second place in the region and 43nd in the world, behind South Korea.
According to the commentary accompanying Taiwan’s entry in this year’s index, “Taiwan’s journalists are suffering from a very polarized media environment dominated by sensationalism and the pursuit of profit. Although President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said she wants to continue developing press freedom in Taiwan, few concrete measures have been taken to improve journalists’ editorial independence and encourage media to raise the quality of the public debate. Beijing is exploiting this weakness by putting pressure on Taiwanese media owners, who often have business interests on the mainland.”
CTiTV Inc also has a general and an entertainment channel, and without waiting for CTiTV chairman Pan Zu-yin (潘祖蔭) to address the company’s employees, Tsai Eng-meng led the employees taking part in the “Autumn Struggle” labor protest held on Nov. 22, accusing the government of neglecting public opinion and curtailing freedom of speech.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also took part in the protest, and its contingent held up banners reading “Taiwanese lives are also lives,” as if they were a beacon of freedom and the protectors of democracy who are building a new Taiwan consensus.
Surely “Taiwanese lives are also lives” is a sentence that all those who were persecuted and oppressed by the KMT in the past agree with.
Taking it to the streets is of course a democratic right, it is just that this time it was the founder of the party-state in Taiwan that took to the streets to oppose “the party-state.”
The KMT imposed martial law in 1949 and kept it in place until 1987, and only lifted a ban on newspaper expansion in 1988.
Yet this year it takes to the streets to protest against what it calls the party-state and in support of freedom of expression. This is either a sign of pure desperation or an instance of a very public reflection on the party’s own shortcomings.
Not long after CTi News submitted its license renewal application, a pan-blue legislator let slip that if the license was not renewed, TVBS was likely to be next.
However, TVBS’ application was approved in October, and CTiTV’s general channel had its license renewed the very same day that that CTi News’ application was rejected.
The idea that every CTiTV channel would be blocked was just an attempt to play up the importance of the station.
On Nov. 19, the CTi News breakdown continued, as it implied that TVBS, EBC News, Era News and other stations had top management that interfered with their reporting.
On Nov. 23, the Taipei High Administrative Court confirmed the NCC ruling and said that the fines issued to CTi News were reasonable.
Two days later, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) voiced its concern about the licensing furor and said the whole affair was an example of how the “Taiwan authorities” suppresses dissident opinion.
That has to rate as one of the most absurd statements ever made by the TAO.
Everyone — including the KMT, of course — knows that the 228 Massacre, the Martial Law era and the White Terror perpetrated by the KMT would be forgotten if we do not keep bringing it up.
The police officer in charge of the arrest of activist/publisher Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) today says that we must respect diversity, and the TVBS contingent at the “Autumn Struggle” protest quoted Deng.
Taiwanese notice such absurdity, and lack of sincerity and honesty, but because the TAO, the KMT and pro-China businesspeople are having a near-death experience, their field of vision has narrowed, and they do not care.
It seems that to the KMT, justice and history are just tools in the party’s struggle to return to power. They are almost deserving of pity.
Lu Peng-yu is a political commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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