Last week's reshuffle of the Chinese Television System's (CTS) board of directors and the appointment of Chiang Hsia (
When the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in opposition, it strongly criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) monopoly on media ownership, saying that the media were being used as a government mouthpiece. It therefore advocated the removal of party politics from the media. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Chen invited a group of academics and media figures to draw up a white paper on media reform, laying out plans to make the state-owned media an independent public institution. But after winning the election, the Chen government failed to enact the reforms that were anticipated.
The political reality is this: regardless of how liberal or broad-based a political party might be, it will try to influence public opinion through media appointments.
There is a growing feeling that the government will now not give up control of the media. It appears then that matters must be addressed at a higher level: reform should be sought via the Constitution.
Chen has declared that he will push through
constitutional amendments. So far so good, but the amended Constitution should contain a chapter dedicated to freedom of speech and the media. This would set a standard for the media's interaction with the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as a recognized Fourth Estate.
There should be articles referring specifically to the creation of an independent media and a National Media Commission that is not subject to the control of any political party. This body would be responsible for integrating and distributing public media resources and monitoring the performance of private media outlets, for drawing up reform proposals and for providing a rational and impartial forum for debate that can improve policy.
This chapter in the Constitution would also cover the disclosure of government-held information and official secrets. Procedures would also be put in place so that the news media can receive legal protection when exercising their right to publish. Constitutional interpretations by the Council of Grand Justices relating to media issues would be incorporated in the amended Constitution to serve as a reference for future judgements in media-related cases.
This country has only just emerged from a period of authoritarian government to become a Western-style democracy, but its laws and administrative structures are far from comprehensive. Although some are doing their best to establish a Fourth Estate, their progress until now has been unsteady.
The amending of the Constitution provides an
opportunity to accelerate this process. Anyone concerned about the management reshuffle within state-run media outlets and the question of what rights the media are entitled to should concentrate on creating a new and comprehensive regulatory mechanism that upholds these rights and protects dissent.
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed