Fri, Mar 13, 2020 page3

• China pressured media outlets: report

  PRESS FREEDOM: The US State Department report voiced concern over Beijing’s efforts to influence Taiwanese media outlets to promote Chinese political priorities

  • Staff writer, with CNA, Washington
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  China has pressured media outlets in Taiwan to produce news in line with its political priorities, a human rights report released by the US on Wednesday said.

  The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued annually by the US Department of State, analyzed 199 countries and regions last year.

  The section on Taiwan covers the nation’s judicial system, government transparency, workers’ rights, freedom of expression, citizens’ involvement in politics, and cases of discrimination and abuse toward minorities.

  On the issue of press freedom, the report said that independent media outlets were active in Taiwan and freely expressed their views without restriction from the Taiwanese government.

  The only concerns about censorship were efforts by Chinese authorities to pressure media organizations in Taiwan, the report said.

  “Senior PRC [People’s Republic of China] officials used the fourth Beijing-Taiwan Media Forum to call on Taiwanese media outlets to shape their coverage to promote PRC political priorities,” it said.

  The report cited the case of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Yang (汪洋), who told journalists to promote policies such as the so-called “1992 consensus,” China’s “one country, two systems” and the peaceful unification of Taiwan and China.

  The “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.

  “Wang also invoked the possibility of war with Taiwan if progress is not made toward these goals,” the report said, adding that “experts considered Wang’s remarks to be the most open and direct case of a PRC official exerting pressure on Taiwan’s media organizations to date.”

  Another example raised was that of the Want Want Group, the owner of several media outlets in Taiwan, including the Chinese-language China Times, and described in the report as having “substantial operations” in China.

  The group in July last year sued a Financial Times journalist “in apparent retaliation for a report she authored exposing coordination between Want Want media outlets in Taiwan and the PRC Taiwan Affairs Office regarding the content of Want Want publications,” the report said.

  The report also said that Chinese authorities pressured companies to pull advertisements from Taiwanese publications whose coverage was “deemed to be insufficiently consistent” with Chinese policies, but it did not name any of the media outlets affected.

  In terms of discrimination and abuse toward underprivileged members of society, the report said that foreign spouses in Taiwan have been “reported targets of social discrimination” in their homes and in society.

  Non-governmental organizations have also reported inadequate facilities for people with disabilities in terms of transportation and education, especially outside of Taipei, the report said.

  As for workers’ rights, the report focused on the plight of migrant workers, who “were most susceptible to forced labor, especially when serving as crew members on Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels.”

  Some brokers charge high fees that plunge migrant workers into “debt bondage,” the report said, and there are no laws to prevent these brokers from simply reopening their businesses under different names after being caught.

  Although there are laws against the mistreatment of workers and Taiwanese authorities seek to enforce them, the penalties are not sufficient to deter contraventions, the report said.
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