A media watchdog group and public health experts yesterday complained that the Taiwanese media's coverage of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had caused unnecessary panic.
The Broadcasting Development Fund (BDF) yesterday invited journalists, media professionals and scientists to evaluate the local media's performance in dealing with the outbreak.
"Just like the coverage on most of the news incidents, the media's coverage provided lots of information without most crucial and basic information," said Lu Shih-xiang (
Local coverage began March 14, the day that a China-based Taiwanese businessman and his wife were admitted to National Taiwan University Hospital. They were the first suspected cases of SARS in the country.
As most of the media urged the public to wear face masks as a protection measures, such masks have become a hot commodity and there were reports about them being sold out in many stores. To the scientists attending yesterday's conference, such stories were just sensationalistic.
In yesterday's discussion, Lin Reuy-shiung (
"Only infected individuals have to wear masks -- to avoid further spreading a virus. The illness is really not as dangerous as the media reported. As a expert, I think the media just wants to scare the public," Lin said.
"The media has the responsibility to provide basic data and the latest developments in their coverage, but Taiwan's media has failed to do so," Lu said.
The experts also criticized some media organizations politicizing the story.
They noted that some pro-unification media groups had avoided questioning the Chinese authorities' efforts to downplay the illness in China, while some media organizations' had high-lighted the quarrel between the central government and the Taipei City Government over quarantine efforts.
Citing an editorial in the March 31 edition of the Asian Wall Street Journal, Lu criticized those media organizations' who were hesitant to condemn the China's performance, but were more than willing to attack the actions of Taiwan's government.
However, at least one expert attending the forum was willing to give the local media the benefit of the doubt.
"How different societies handle the illness reflect their own cultures. Taiwan's media has much to learn compared to Western countries, but its performance is actually fine when we compared it with China, Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian countries," said Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), a public health professor at National Taiwan University.
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