Two seismic events, one in Taiwan and the other in Hong Kong, have sent shock waves through the respective journalistic communities over the past month.
The event in Taiwan occurred at midnight on Dec. 11, when CTi News ceased broadcasting on cable television after its license renewal application was rejected by the National Communications Commission.
The following day, the channel’s owner, Want Want China Times Media Group founder Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), announced that CTi News would be transformed into a “new media” organization and continue broadcasting around-the-clock on YouTube.
At the time of writing, the YouTube channel had 2.27 million subscribers.
The Hong Kong event occurred on the same day that the rebirth of CTi News on YouTube was announced: Hong Kong tycoon and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai (黎智英) was led away in handcuffs and chains by security officials for alleged crimes under the Hong Kong National Security Law.
There is a point of similarity between the media group founder and the tycoon: Both have accused their respective governments of autocratic behavior, and of infringing on democracy and human rights.
However, the governments of Taiwan and Hong Kong could not have dealt more differently with the two situations.
In Taiwan, Tsai — protected by freedom of speech — has continued to spout criticism of the government, branding it a dictatorship.
By contrast, in Hong Kong, Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper was raided by the police, Lai was arrested and charges were brought against him, and he received numerous personal threats, which have not been followed up by the police.
Lai is to be tried under a specially appointed national security law judge on charges of colluding with foreign powers in what can only be described as a show trial.
He will undoubtedly be found guilty and handed a custodial sentence.
In Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration is from time to time accused by its detractors of being “green communists.”
On Dec. 11, the Chinese-language China Times, which is also owned by Tsai, ran with the headline: “President Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] more evil than Chiang Kai-shek [蔣介石],” making it seem like the Chinese Communist Party’s evil acts in China and Hong Kong were being repeated in Taiwan.
Tsai Eng-meng might want to consider that, unlike Lai, he was not paraded through the streets in handcuffs and chains to be captured by the media, and faced with the humiliation of being tried by the public.
There is a reason for this: The rule of law in Taiwan guarantees him liberty.
Short of committing a specific crime that leads to a successful prosecution, Tsai Eng-meng is free to criticize government officials and hold the DPP administration to account without fear of arrest.
Good luck to Tsai Eng-meng if he or any of his media organizations acted out the same behavior in China and criticized the Chinese government.
He would almost certainly be arrested, forced to issue a groveling apology, bound in chains and paraded before the media, while his companies would be brought under state control.
On the same day, two different media “upsets” took place in two radically different political environments, demonstrating the chasm between China and Taiwan.
Chen Kuan-fu is a research student in National Taipei University’s Department of Law.
Translated by Edward Jones
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