Political polarization, self-censorship and indirect influence from Beijing limit the diversity of opinions represented in the mainstream media in Taiwan, according to a survey of the world’s press released this week by Washington-based Freedom House.
Despite these negatives, the survey said that Taiwan’s media environment was one of the freest in Asia, with a “vigorous and diverse” press that reported aggressively on government policies and alleged official wrongdoing.
Covering the whole of last year, the survey said that as commercial ties between Taiwan and China deepened, signs of self-censorship persisted.
“In addition to a reduced amount of front-page articles about China’s social and political issues, critics cited a surge of entertainment news about Chinese celebrities,” the survey found.
A total of 197 countries were ranked in order of media independence, with the top spot shared by Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.
Taiwan placed 47th, behind the US, which ranked 30th, but well ahead of China, which was 183rd.
North Korea came in last with the most restricted and censored media in the world.
New Zealand ranked 22nd, Australia 33rd and Japan 42nd.
Freedom House reported that global press freedom had fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade and said the decline was driven in part by a major regression in the Middle East, a number of countries in Africa and deterioration in the “relatively open media environment” in the US.
Only 14 percent of the world’s population — one in seven people — lived in countries with a “free” media, while 42 percent had a “partly free” media and 44 percent had a “not free” media.
In the Asia-Pacific region, 5 percent of people had access to a “free” media, while China was said to continue its crackdown on online speech, particularly on microblogs, as it ramped up pressure on foreign journalists.
Press freedom was said to have deteriorated in Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and several Pacific Island states.
The survey said that despite public support, efforts to pass an act to prevent media monopolies in Taiwan stalled last year, with lawmakers unable to reach consensus on the ownership limits.
The legal, political and economic environment for the media in Taiwan was judged to have deteriorated slightly over the past five years.
“China’s media environment remained one of the world’s most restrictive in 2013,” the survey showed.
“After intellectuals and members of civil society urged the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to adhere to the constitution and a rare strike by journalists at a major newspaper sparked broader public pressure to reduce censorship, the authorities responded with campaigns to intensify ideological controls,” it said.
The survey said that despite the robust censorship system in China, journalists, grassroots activists and netizens continued to use creative means to expose official wrongdoing, in some cases forcing the authorities to offer concessions such as the dismissal of corrupt officials and the closure of a notorious labor camp.
However, Chinese citizens’ ability to freely share and access uncensored information, particularly about breaking news, suffered an overall setback last year.
“The new judicial guidelines and the growing number of arrests had an immediate and palpable chilling effect on online discourse, surpassing previous government attempts to increase control over social media,” the survey found.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS