The media is not playing its proper role in reporting stories on the presidential campaign, media specialists said yesterday at a seminar held by the Chinese Development Fund Commission.
The result of the way news is emphasized by the media has turned what should be an exchange of information into nothing more than reports on the "war of words" between candidates, senior media managers said.
Those attending the seminar said cross-strait issues have yet to become a critical issue in the campaign.
Wang Chien-chuang (
According to Wang, so far there has been no reporting of this kind available.
He said the five candidates have all proposed to have a more open dialogue with the mainland and lower hostility across the Strait, but most of them did not have a clearly-stated policy on how to achieve these aims.
"For example, Lien's policy lacks innovation and Soong still does not have a comprehensive cross-strait policy."
Wang acknowledged that the release of a "white paper" by DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian (
The media has not been serving the function of facilitating dialogue between the candidates and the voters, nor between the candidates themselves, according to Yang Chih-hung (楊志弘), dean of the school of communication at Mingchuan University.
Yang said that reporting in Taiwan should be able to bring about some response from the mainland.
"The media should be able to form some kind of a forum to make the Chinese respond to the various claims made by the candidates," he said.
Yang went on to say the media should actively raise questions on important cross-strait issues such as the question of direct trade after Taiwan's entry into the WTO, Taiwanese investors in China and cross-strait marriages.
Journalists, he said, should demand candidates turn their debates to such issues.
"But what we have seen in the papers are mostly just wars of words," he said.
Lin Sheng-fen (
For example, he said: "When Chen Shui-bian announced his China policy "white paper," a mere publicity stunt held by another politician buried any relevant discussion of the paper."
What Lin was apparently referring to was President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) branding of James Soong (宋楚瑜) as a "betrayer" on the same day Chen released his position paper, effectively shifting the media's attention away from Chen.
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