Prospective candidates for public office should divest themselves of any interest in media organizations before declaring their candidacy, a non-profit media-monitoring organization said yesterday.
The Media Inspection Union called for all media organizations to adopt "complete political neutrality with respect to election-related activity."
The union made the demands at a press conference at National Taiwan University yesterday.
The call for political neutrality echoed a demand made by a similar group, the Taiwan Media Watch Foundation on Oct. 14.
"The media's job is to serve as a bridge between the candidates and the public," said Chang Cheng-shuh (
Chang said, "Candidates for public office should not be involved in any media-related business. At the same time, TV stations, radio stations and newspapers should adopt a position of political impartiality with respect to election-related activities."
"From our observations of the media we've discovered something interesting," said Kao Cheng-yen (
Kao said that in the current election campaign, TV coverage has included very little genuine debate about substantive political issues.
"Instead," he said, "we have seen political party leaders cursing each other on TV. Today, we saw former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) cursing, criticizing and insulting KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰). Trust me, tomorrow, we will see People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) cursing, criticizing and insulting Lee Teng-hui."
Kao said that this happens because politicians who own TV stations use their stations as exclusive platforms for other politicians from their own party to engage in negative campaigning against their opponents.
In addition to voicing its support for the foundation's call to the legislature to amend the Political Party Law (政黨法) to require politicians to be free of media interests, the union said that legislators should also amend the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選罷法) to require media workers who wish to register and run for election to resign their posts before becoming official candidates.
A statement issued by the organization also called on politicians to stop hosting talk shows.
Among this year's legislative hopefuls, nine own media outlets. Eleven are current hosts of political talk shows on TV or radio. Some have more than one show on different stations.
"In Western countries the media is regarded as the fourth branch of government, scrutinizing the executive, legislative and judiciary branches," said Chuang Sheng-jong (莊勝榮), an attorney for the organization. "We should leave it alone, so that it can do its job."
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