In the wake of recent allegations that a Taipei deputy mayor suppressed press freedom by threatening the media, a survey released by a Taipei City councilor yesterday showed that more than 66 percent of journalists have experienced or heard of the city government's discrimination against reporters.
The survey conducted on Wednesday collected answers from 42 reporters covering the city government beat. It explored the relationship between the Taipei City Government and the media, after an article in the latest issue of Eyewitness magazine said that Taipei Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) had asked a reporter from the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) to "be careful" in her reporting, because he had the cellphone number of her paper's editors-in-chief.
According to the survey, 66 percent of respondents thought the city government was discriminatory in its treatment of the media, and 78 percent said they had been "treated by city officials with poor manners" or knew colleagues who had been.
More than 64 percent of respondents said they had received phone calls from officials, or were asked to meet them to talk about their stories.
"More than 85 percent of reporters said they think those phone calls or meetings were a suppression of press freedom, and this, I think explains the tension between the city government and the media," People First Party City Councilor Dai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) said yesterday during a question and answer session at the Taipei City Council.
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said it is not necessarily suppression of press freedom for city government staff to be concerned about media reports.
"If the media reports are incorrect or biased, there is nothing wrong with our staff expressing their concerns," Ma said at the council meeting.
The city government received an average score of 64.88 percent for its interaction with the media.
When asked about the rating, the mayor said the relationship between the government at any level and the media should never be harmonious.
"It is the media's responsibility to find fault with the government, and so I think it is normal that there is tension between the two," he said.
King admitted yesterday that he had called media executives to express concern over the content of some articles, and that he lost his temper when trying to "communicate with the reporter."
"But she didn't include the reason for my anger in her article ... And although I called the editor to express my concerns, I called after the report came out and I did not interfere with the news report," he said.
King declined to comment further on the issue, but emphasized that he always "patiently communicates" with reporters before making a call, and that he would be happy to discuss the issue with the reporter and the magazine in a panel discussion.
Ma said the city will review the survey results and continue to communicate with reporters.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS