The shutdown of CTi News (中天新聞), after its license expires tomorrow, would have a detrimental effect on people’s trust in the government, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said in Taipei yesterday.
“Our government is still unaware that doing so will not only shut down a single media outlet, but also shut down the people’s trust in the government and shut down Taiwan’s democratic value of diverse voices,” Chiang told a weekly meeting of the KMT Central Standing Committee.
“As the ruling party during the nation’s authoritarian period, the Chinese Nationalist Party is still often criticized and blamed,” he said, adding that criticism of the party has come with “misunderstandings and distortions.”
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
However, the course of Taiwan’s democracy “although slow and arduous, has never regressed,” he said.
With control of the government and the Legislative Yuan, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has “directed a scalpel at the license renewal application of the news channel most opposed to its position and that most dares to criticize the government,” Chiang said.
“This will make the course of democracy in Taiwanese society not only stop, but regress,” he added.
Quoting an 1835 statement by French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville, Chiang said: “In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils that it engenders.”
“When our government lists the reasons for not renewing the license [of CTi News], it is completely forgetting the profound influence and impact that shutting down a news channel will have on freedom of the press [in Taiwan],” he said.
“Between the government and the media, like US founding father [Thomas] Jefferson, we choose to stand with the media without hesitation,” he said.
On the issue of the government’s decision to allow traces of the animal feed additive ractopamine in imported pork from Jan. 1, Chiang said that the KMT does not rule out another protest.
In the face of what he described as the DPP’s “winner-takes-all” attitude, Chiang said that in addition to making its voice heard in the Legislative Yuan, the KMT does not rule out “taking to the streets again.”
The KMT and its supporters were part of the “Autumn Struggle” protest in Taipei on Nov. 22, which saw tens of thousands of people march against the government’s plan to allow the importation of pork containing traces of ractopamine, among other issues.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chiang are scheduled to appear at a KMT news conference in Taipei tomorrow, titled “Safeguard Press Freedom, Hold Government Accountable,” on the issue of the National Communications Commission’s denial of CTi News’ license renewal, the KMT said yesterday.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods