The Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ), several civic groups and academics are urging the public to sign an online signature drive in support of employees of the Chinese-language China Times against the paper’s plan to lay off some 400 workers.
At a press conference in Taipei yesterday, Media Watch chairman Kuan Chung-hsiang (管中祥) urged the China Times to sign a pact guaranteeing employees’ rights and to publicize its financial condition. He said the online petition launched last Monday had attracted more than 400 people.
He criticized the paper’s plan to turn downsize itself and turn itself into a “newspaper for the elite,” adding: “The media, as a public tool, should not exist only for the elite but should reflect the voice of different groups of a society.”
ATJ secretary-general Liu Chia-jun (劉嘉韻) said the paper would become a tabloid for a short period before disappearing.
The China Times said on June 18 it would reduce its pages and downsize its work force by almost half because of a big drop in advertising revenues.
“Newspapers are more than a business. They are also an indispensable public sphere in a democracy,” Campaign for Media Reform representative Chiu Chia-yi (邱家宜) said, urging the paper to model itself on the Guardian in the UK and turn the newspaper over to a trust to be managed.
“I don’t think the China Times ever cared about its elite readers,” said Kuo Li-hsin (郭力昕), a lecturer at National Chengchi University’s department of radio and television and a contributor to the paper.
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