After the lifting of martial law, the number of media outlets in the country rapidly expanded and the media environment has become increasingly freer. In 2008, Taiwan’s press was ranked as the 32nd-freest in the world by Freedom House. That has remained Taiwan’s best ranking to date. After that, it has dropped continually — sinking to 43rd in 2009, 47th last year and 48th this year.
The 2009 Freedom House report pointed to increasing polarization in the country during the visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), adding that the main reason for the drop in Taiwan’s ranking was that representatives of government and nongovernmental organizations attempted to influence editorial content and attacked reporters.
The report also mentioned that the appointment of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 2008 election campaign spokesperson Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) as vice chairman of the Central News Agency (CNA) led to a marked decrease in reports that were critical of the government. Taiwanese media outlets often rely on CNA translations of reports from foreign news agencies, but with the agency leaving out negative comments about the Ma administration, the result was that other media also overlooked such reports.
Freedom House said Taiwan’s ranking dropped further last year because the Want Want Group, after acquiring the China Times Group, pressured the latter to cut down on reports that were critical of China and the Ma administration. Other media outlets also imposed self control or restraint when reporting on Tibet, Xinjiang and Falun Gong to avoid upsetting China. Freedom House expressed concern that commercial concerns would increasingly place Taiwanese media under China’s thumb.
Moreover, as the media environment deteriorated in the wake of the financial crisis, embedded advertising increased. The government’s widespread use of embedded advertising enhanced the risk of affecting reporting by media outlets afraid of offending the administration.
The nation’s ranking continued to fall this year because of increasingly polarized reporting on political parties, the Public Television System controversy and the continued rise in embedded advertising despite legislation making it illegal. The resignation of senior China Times reporter Dennis Huang (黃哲斌) further highlighted how serious the matter is. Control Yuan member Frank Wu (吳豐山) has issued a report and proposed corrective measures on the government’s and China’s embedded advertising.
If all the government, businesses and even China have to do to affect the news is to put up some money, can the public really know if the news they get is true or manipulated? What has happened to the public’s right to know?
Press freedom is an important link in a democracy. How can people find out the truth if reporters refuse to report it? How are we going to monitor the government effectively? The countries with the freest press in the world — Finland, Norway and Sweden — are free of corruption, which highlights why freedom of the press is important.
Hawang Shiow-duan is a professor of political science at Soochow University.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of