Until party-state ideology has been eliminated, the only thing we can do to stop politicians from meddling in public broadcasting is to close down public broadcasting stations. Otherwise, government-funded media such as Radio Taiwan International (RTI) and the Central News Agency (CNA) will undergo personnel changes and power struggles whenever there is a transition of power.
For instance, our public broadcasting turned from blue to green during the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and is now turning from green back to blue as a result of the vicious struggles taking place under the new government.
In the past, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rule was built on the basis of military power, media control, party networks and an intelligence system. Guided by its party-state ideology, the KMT viewed the media as an important propaganda tool and a weapon that could be used in political struggles.
Ever since the era of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), our government has viewed the media as a private tool it can use in achieving its goals. This is in total contradiction with the ideal of the media being a public instrument.
Even party leaders, who for the most part received higher education abroad, merely curried favor with authorities in order to make quick personal gain after taking control of the media or departments of journalism at colleges and universities.
In earlier years, party or state media were able to provide better employment with high pay to journalists. The monopoly over newspapers was unshakable until private newspapers, such as the United Daily News and the China Times appeared in the 1970s. Although the KMT still controlled Taiwan’s three terrestrial TV stations, RTI and party and state newspapers, its influence had weakened significantly by that time.
With the rise of the dangwai (outside the KMT) movement, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and increased pressure from the US, the KMT finally lifted martial law and its ban on independent newspapers in 1987 and 1988 respectively.
Suddenly, the withdrawal of political and military forces from the media became a trend and spurred the establishment of stations such as the Public Television Service in 1998.
Despite these political developments, the poison of party-state ideology still affects Taiwan to this day. After the KMT regained power earlier this year, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government showed once again that party-state ideology is still alive with its use of the media as a propaganda tool.
Key DPP figures are no better, since they mostly grew up under the KMT’s party-state ideology, albeit on the other side of the political divide. Many in the DPP learned from their political rivals in the KMT. The DPP’s rise to power was accomplished on the wing of the media.
An example of the link between media and political power can be seen in the Independence newspaper group, which actively supported the DPP and played a key role in the push for local democratization before it ceased publication.
When it came to power in 2000, the former DPP regime focused on freeing up and reforming our public broadcasting. However, the DPP also used the media as a propaganda tool.
In other words, although officials of the former DPP government despised the KMT’s party-state ideology, they demonstrated the same ideology by using the state media as a tool for achieving their goals. This thought process caused the DPP to repeat the KMT’s past mistakes and caused even more political struggle within Taiwan.
The most innocent people in this whole mess are probably those who work for party and public broadcasting. With educations in modern broadcasting, freedom of the press and social accountability are fundamental ideas to these people.
These ideas are of course in direct contradiction with those in higher places who have been appointed as a form of “political payment.”
These workers agonize as they go against what they recognize as established professional journalistic practices by following the orders of their superiors. The DPP and the KMT governments emphasize totally different goals and use totally different methods to achieve them. Therefore, journalists are never sure what they should cover.
Instead of letting politicians from the blue and green camps manipulate and recklessly abuse public broadcasting, it would be better to close down all forms of public broadcasting so as to not waste our taxpayers’ money.
Those in power will always want to manipulate the media and will always view the media as a tool for propaganda. Public broadcasting is no exception.
The only solution is to close down all of our public broadcasting providers, except maybe for PTS. This would not only stop politicians from manipulating public broadcasting, but would take away any hope for people who want to curry favor with those in power or serve as their mouthpieces.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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