Despite Taiwan moving up five places to No. 38 in the World Press Freedom Index released yesterday by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the organization said more needed to be done to address a “toxic” working environment for journalists.
Taiwan’s ranking placed it fourth in the Asia-Pacific region, behind New Zealand (11th), East Timor (17th) and Bhutan (33rd), but ahead of Australia (39th) and South Korea (43rd).
Taiwan was among the 40 countries listed in the index as having a “satisfactory” media environment.
Photo: AFP
The index’s top three spots went to Norway, Denmark and Sweden in that order, with the three Nordic countries considered to have a “good” media environment.
Commenting on the latest index, Cedric Alviani, head of RSF’s East Asia Bureau, said the change in Taiwan’s ranking did not reflect the nation’s improvement, but was rather the result of a modified way of compiling the index.
“This year, Taiwan moving up five ranks does not reflect any significant improvement in terms of press freedom,” Alviani told the Central News Agency during a telephone interview yesterday. “So the movement is purely due to the new system we used to make the index.”
This change of criteria enabled the index to better reflect the current press freedom situation of every country, Alviani said.
While Taiwan has a favorable ranking, its press freedom situation has been “impaired” by some “serious problems,” he said.
Political polarization and the sensational approach that Taiwanese media take to report certain news pose an “obstacle” to the public getting factual and objective information, Alviani added.
RSF had for the past year repeatedly called on the government to take some measures to address these problems, such as providing serious funding for public broadcasters without compromising their editorial independence, he said.
He also said the working environment for journalists was “quite toxic” and that such a situation continued to impact Taiwan’s press freedom.
Many young journalists have changed jobs after a few years of work because they were underpaid and overworked, and because it was not possible for them to do quality reporting as they had been expected to do, Alviani said, citing RSF’s past interviews and discussions with Taiwanese journalists.
In East Asia, the press freedom situation is “getting worse,” he said.
In particular, the ranking of Hong Kong showed “one of the biggest downfalls ever in our index over the past 20 years,” Alviani said.
Hong Kong ranked 148th in this year’s index, slipping 68 spots from No. 80 in the previous ranking.
“One could be afraid that in a few years, let’s say before the end of the mandate [of the Sino-British Joint Declaration], freedom of the press in Hong Kong would be no better than freedom of the press in the rest of the country,” he said, referring to China, which finished at 175th in the index.
WHEELING AND DEALING? Hou You-yi, Ko Wen-je, Eric Chu and Ma Ying-jeou are under investigation for allegedly offering bribes for the other side to drop out of the race Taipei prosecutors have started an investigation into allegations that four top politicians involved in attempts to form a “blue-white” presidential ticket have contravened election regulations. Listed as defendants are Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). The case stemmed from judicial complaints filed last month with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office alleging that the KMT (blue) and the TPP (white) had engaged in bribery by offering money or other enticements
ELIGIBLE FOR JANUARY: All presidential candidates and their running mates meet the requirements to run for office, and none hold dual citizenship, the CEC said Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator and vice presidential candidate Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈) is working with the Central Election Commission (CEC) to resolve issues with her financial disclosure statement, a spokesman for the candidate said yesterday, after the commission published the statements of all three presidential candidates and their running mates, while confirming their eligibility to run in the Jan. 13 election. Wu’s office spokesman, Chen Yu-cheng (陳宥丞), said the candidate encountered unforeseen difficulties disclosing her husband’s finances due to being suddenly thrust into the campaign. She is also the first vice presidential nominee to have a foreign spouse, complicating the reporting of
GOOD NEWS: Although open civic spaces are shrinking in Asia-Pacific countries and territories, Taiwan’s openness is a positive sign, an expert said Taiwan remains the only country in Asia with an “open” civic space for the fifth consecutive year, the Civicus Monitor said in a report released yesterday. The People Power Under Attack 2023 report named Taiwan as one of only 37 open countries or territories out of 198 globally, and the only one in Asia. Compiled by Civicus — a global alliance of civil society organizations dedicated to bolstering civil action — the ranking compiled annually since 2017 measures the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression around the world. Researchers assign each country or territory one of five rankings describing the
NOT JUST CHIPS: Although semiconductor processes are on the list, it also includes military technology and post-quantum cryptography to combat emerging cyberthreats The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released a list of 22 technologies it considers crucial to the nation’s security and competitiveness, including the 14-nanometer semiconductor process and advanced chip packaging. For the first time, the council made a list of core technologies with an aim of preventing secret information about those technologies being leaked to foreign countries, which could put the nation’s security and the competitiveness of local industries at risk. For years, local semiconductor companies have faced challenges from talent poaching and theft of corporate secrets by Chinese competitors, who are seeking to rapidly advance their technology capabilities through
RSS