More than 70 percent of Taiwanese think that national security is more important than freedom of the press, a survey released yesterday by the Professor Huang Kun-huei Education Foundation showed.
As the nation discusses the issue of “fake news,” the survey about educational issues included a question asking respondents the importance they attach to national security and freedom of the press.
A total of 74.1 percent of respondents think national security is more important than freedom of the press and 16.6 percent hold the opposite view, while 9.3 percent did not give a clear response, the survey found.
Foundation poll committee member Feng Ching-huang (馮清皇) said that the result was the same across all demographics, including gender, location, age and educational background.
Most people think that national security is more important, showing that people should be educated on how to identify fabricated news, Feng said.
An international study has suggested that Taiwan has in the past few years been seriously affected by foreign governments’ dissemination of false information, poll committee convener Kuo Sheng-yu (郭生玉) said.
Russia annexed Crimea after it launched a false news campaign, so Taiwan should think whether it wants to follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Kuo said.
Foundation president Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said that while the Constitution protects freedom of speech, widespread misinformation and fabricated news are affecting social stability.
From an educational viewpoint, the survey result calls for more thought on the issue, Huang said.
The survey also found that 71 percent of respondents support the Executive Yuan’s proposed draft amendments to the Teachers’ Act (教師法) to require schools’ evaluation committees, which review incompetent teachers, to have more outside members, and to lower the percentage of teachers who do not hold administrative or board member positions to less than 50 percent.
The survey showed that 75.3 percent of respondents are in favor of including early childhood education for five-year-olds in the compulsory education system and 77 percent think the government should announce a timetable for implementing the policy.
The survey also found that 51.6 percent of respondents support the policy to ban schools from publicizing individual students’ exam scores and ranking.
The survey collected 1,072 valid samples from Monday to Wednesday last week. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3 percent.
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
TRADE MISSION: After Fijian elections in December last year, pro-democratic parties formed a coalition and overruled a name change imposed by the former government The Taipei Trade Office in Fiji has been restored to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Fiji on Friday last week issued a note verbale to the office saying that the name change was retroactively effective from March 15, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Wallace Chow (周民淦) told a news conference in Taipei. The mission’s diplomatic privileges have been reinstated as stipulated in Fiji’s Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act, which was enacted in 1971, Chow said. Taiwan set up a trade
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday departed for a 12-day trip to China as scheduled, despite calls for him to cancel the trip after Honduras severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan as an apparent result of China’s dollar diplomacy. “This is my first trip to China. I was 37 when I began handling cross-strait affairs in the government. Now I am 73 and have waited 36 years for the visit. It is indeed a bit too long, but I am glad I can go,” Ma of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. “Aside from paying respects to
‘INDISPENSABLE ROLE’: Despite stopovers in the US, Tsai said the aim of her trip is to ‘demonstrate determination to deepen exchanges’ with the allies of the nation President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday afternoon left Taiwan on a 10-day trip to Central America that includes stopovers in New York and Los Angeles. “Through this visit, I will express my gratitude to diplomatic partners for their support of Taiwan,” Tsai said at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport shortly before boarding the plane. The trip to Guatemala and Belize — her first overseas journey since the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping around the world in early 2020 — aims to “demonstrate Taiwan’s determination to deepen exchanges” with its Central American allies, she said. Tsai said that she and her delegation would also explore the possibility
RSS