The National Communications Commission (NCC), in fining SET-TV NT$1 million (US$30,000) for airing a 228 Incident documentary that contained erroneous archival footage, has shown that it cannot be trusted to conduct its affairs in an impartial, let alone intelligible, fashion.
Its partisan decision amounts to an attack on freedom of speech -- in the sense that it intimidates media workers and program producers into a level of perfection that approaches the fantastic. No longer, it seems, is there the freedom to make mistakes that can be atoned for by an apology, a promise to do better and a damaged reputation.
This chilling effect could turn out to be pronounced. The media make mistakes all the time in a variety of contexts. This inexactitude is an unfortunate fact of life for an industry with little time to maneuver. The question that follows in this brave new era is which mistakes will be picked up, by whom and for what political purposes.
If each of the nation's media organizations -- regardless of political leaning -- are now to be held to this standard, we can expect a big increase in the number of incidents resulting in fines.
It is not clear if the NCC's members have any concept of precedent. If they do, then their actions are a sinister throwback to a less liberal era and should be opposed by all media outlets. If they do not, then they are a sad joke and the agency should be addressed as such at every available opportunity.
When the Government Information Office's role in monitoring the media was taken away, there were high -- perhaps naive -- hopes that the replacement would be a truly independent force, free of unreasonable influence from all political parties.
Instead, the NCC is a politically partisan body because it is made up of people appointed by the parties in proportion to the number of seats each party has in the legislature. It therefore cannot be trusted to make judgments on media matters with the public as its primary interest, and even less so when media outlets attempt to address sensitive political matters.
The NCC has been declared an unconstitutional body by the Council of Grand Justices, though for reasons only understood by the justices themselves it has been allowed to continue operations and will do for some time until the law is changed.
The NCC's stupidity offers stark evidence of what will happen if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continues with its campaign to turn the Central Election Commission -- and any other body that requires expertise and independence to function properly -- into partisan agencies.
And this is, indeed, yet another reminder that the ideological nature of the KMT has not changed since Taiwan democratized, and that many of its fellow travelers in academia and elsewhere are ready to turn back the clock as soon as a chance presents itself. Democracy, non-partisan institutions of state, due process: These terms are of no value to the hardliners that run the KMT except when used as political slogans.
Appointees to the NCC who respect the principles of independence and separation of powers should quit and let the body conduct its affairs in an even more transparently biased and inept fashion. Those who stay and lend it the facade of a balanced executive agency will only further injure their credibility.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS