While voices from local and international communities accused the DPP government of damaging Taiwan's democracy by raiding Next magazine's offices, scholars and media professionals said that Taiwan's media need to evaluate its performance.
At the 13th anniversary memorial of democracy activist Deng Nan-jung (
Many opposition politicians have said that the Chen administration's raid on Next magazine dishonors the sacrifice of Deng, who immolated himself for freedom of speech on April 7, 1989.
History and journalism professors, as well as local reporters, however, said that the two cases are not comparable.
While giving a speech for the activist, Chen said the media have misunderstood the real meaning of freedom of speech over the National Security Bureau (NSB) case.
The Chinese-language newspaper China Times and Next magazine printed stories about two secret funds worth NT$3.5 billion belonging to the NSB.
The stories prompted the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office to charge Huang Ching-lung (
Prosecutors then raided Next magazine's Hsintien office, its printing plant in Taoyuan and the apartment of Hsieh Zhong-liang (
They also confiscated 160,000 copies of the edition at these three locations.
Hsieh was charged with the same violation as Huang.
Some scholars emphasized that the background of the two cases are different and that free speech should not hurt individuals.
"Every publication can publish whatever it wants, including all kinds of ideologies about independence and unification nowadays. If we judged the current case by the old standards, those reporters and media organizations would have been accused of espionage," said Lee Shiao-feng (李筱峰), a professor of political history at Shih Hsin University.
"Freedom of speech should be under the condition of not hurting other individuals' freedom. It is not right for Taiwan's media organizations to abuse the freedom of speech in the name of Deng Nan-jung's sacrifice," said political commentator Lee Yung-chih (
Media professionals and watchers said that Taiwan's media standards are often not very high.
Many have also noted that Taiwan's media frequently publishes or broadcasts inaccurate information or move too quickly to cover a story that it hasn't properly researched.
According to a survey by Commonwealth magazine in March, only 22 percent of the audience and readers trust the media, while 37 percent don't.
The China Times published its reports about the NSB documents within 24 hours after receiving those materials. And Next reporter Hsieh, told the Taipei Times that he drew the whole picture about the scandal himself.
"I have traced this case for a long time. The documents I received don't mention the details of the scandal. I deciphered the documents myself," Hsieh said.
Lu Shih-xiang (盧世祥), a retired reporter and a lecturer in the Journalism Department of the National Taiwan University, said that Taiwan's media avoids checking out its sources.
"The New York Times spent three months to check the secret documents it got in 1971 [for the Pentagon Papers story], but the China Times published its stories within one day," Lu said.
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