Several respected figures such as choreographer Lin Hwai-min (
The truth is that all major media outlets have become so deeply involved in the domestic political wrangling that their objectivity is frequently open to question. And to promote their political agenda, some have resorted to fabricating or running unverified stories as front-page news or broadcasting hearsay.
Media outlets are entitled to their own political stance -- as long as they are kept within the editorial and opinion pages, and not masquerading as fact-based, objective news articles.
A glance at a few recent examples shows just how much the local media need to change their work ethics before any more damage is done to the country's fourth estate.
The Chinese-language United Daily News on Aug. 18 ran a front-page story alleging that the president's son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming (
The report, quoting anonymous sources in the jewelry industry, went on to claim that after being released on bail last month, Chao had asked a friend to sell the diamond at a lower price, implying that Chao meant to flee the country.
Threatened with a libel suit by Chao, the paper later issued an apology for failing to verify the facts before running the story.
Something similar also happened not long ago when the Chinese-language China Times published a front-page story alleging that Freddy Lim (
How do these incidents compare with how the international press operates?
Consider Reuters news agency's decision to fire a freelance photographer when it discovered that one of the photographs he took in Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more and darker smoke rising from buildings in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike.
Or, veteran newsman Dan Rather's decision to quit as anchor of CBS Evening News after coming under fire for a contentious and disputed report about US President George W. Bush's military service.
Irresponsible reporting not only misleads the public but also harms those in the media who take their jobs seriously and who are concerned about the image and reputation of the country's press.
In the end it's the public that suffers. Pity the readers and viewers who let their blood pressure rise over a fabricated story.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
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
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
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,
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