More than 1,450 news media researchers and professionals, as well as journalism students, have endorsed legislation that would require cross-border platform operators to negotiate with Taiwanese news media over a fair share of advertising revenue for publishing their content on their platforms.
The overwhelming support for the draft “news media and digital platform bargaining act” was received within just 10 days after a signature campaign for it was launched, National Taiwan Normal University’s Graduate Institute of Mass Communication professor Wang Wei-ching (王維菁) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Many communications experts, senior news media professionals and those holding management positions in news media have also signed the petition, she said.
Photo: CNA
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have all proposed versions of the draft. The legislature’s Transportation Committee held a hearing on the draft last week and vowed to push it to a third reading before the end of this legislative session.
Google and Meta have never paid for the use of news content, but they have been using it to generate advertising revenue and are controlling about 70 percent of it, Wang said.
This has led to a sharp decline in advertising revenue and a decrease in news media professionals, she said.
News media researchers have been advocating since 2021 for a bill that would require international platform operators to negotiate over the pricing of news content with Taiwanese news media, or the establishment of a fund, Wang said.
However, the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which has been assigned by the Executive Yuan to handle the matter, has yet to present its own version of the draft act, she said.
The government has practically allowed these large international platforms to drain Taiwan’s news media industry, raking in NT$40 billion to NT$50 billion (US$1.35 billion to US$1.69 billion) in online advertising revenue each year, Wang said.
However, they have neither given Taiwanese news media a fair share of the advertising revenue, nor created any job opportunities, which is unfair, she said.
The ministry was concerned that proposing such a bill now could affect progress in Taiwan’s trade negotiations with the US government.
“However, we are talking about a content authorization fee of NT$3 billion to NT$4 billion, which accounts for a very small portion of bilateral trade value, but is key to the survival of the news media industry. It is the means that young journalists can fight with to stay in the news business,” Wang said.
Fu Jen Catholic University journalism and communication studies professor Chen Shun-hsiao (陳順孝) said that the starting salary of a newspaper journalist has fallen below that of 30 years ago, because newspapers do not receive a fair share of advertising revenue from digital platforms.
National Chengchi University journalism professor Liu Hui-wen (劉慧雯) said that students in the university’s College of Communication take courses in freshmen and sophomore years, but fewer students choose journalism as their major when they become juniors upon finding out the salary and career prospects they would have upon graduation.
Chinese Television Service new media department manager Chen Hsin-tsung (陳信聰) said that there is scarce advertising revenue that news media could obtain due to the algorithms used by online platforms, which are not transparent.
“This has created an unhealthy environment, where news media would force ground-level workers to take pay cuts or simply lay them off. As such, fewer people want to devote time and resources to authentic news coverage, and democracy is in peril because of false information,” Chen said.
Association of Taiwan Journalists chairman Wu Po-hsuan (吳柏軒) said that the values and roles of journalists should not be replaced by Internet personalities.
“Internet personalities survive by following platform algorithms, often focusing on topics that drive traffic for their channels. In contrast, news media prioritize the public interest, sometimes tackling seemingly mundane yet important issues. No one would bother digging up the truth once journalism dies,” Wu said.
Yang Ren (楊仁), a student at the National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Journalism, said that Taiwan has great journalists, but the current working environment discourages them from staying in the field.
“They start out wanting to pursue the truth, but wind up struggling to survive on low wages and have to chase clicks for their stories,” Yang said.
Media Business Association of Taipei chairwoman Kung Ru-chin (龔汝沁) said that the association advocates for a dual-track funding system for news media. It would allow media outlets to either negotiate with platforms directly or be supported by a fund set up by platforms and taxpayers.
“In terms of magazine or publication businesses in Taiwan, one-quarter of them have capital of less than NT$1 million, while two-thirds have capital of less than NT$10 million,” she said.
“Most of them are in debt, and asking them to negotiate with larger platforms would be like David versus Goliath,” she added.
Taiwan Media Workers Union chairman Roger Yen (嚴文廷) said that a portion of the revenue news media receive from platforms should be allocated to increasing salaries for news media workers and improving their working environment.
If a fund is established to support news media, the priority should be given to those outlets that have signed an editorial code of conduct with workers and comply with the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Yen said.
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