Five years can be both a short time and a long time. It is surprising, in a way, to realize that the Taipei Times has been in publication for only five years. It seems that it has been around much longer, providing news and commentary concerning political and social trends in Taiwan. As the nation's political mainstream has shifted, the Taipei Times has become an increasingly valuable resource for outsiders. Its Internet availability only enhances its value.
And yet it has been only five years -- five eventful years, to be sure -- since Lin Rong San (
A good democracy cannot exist and survive without a good mass media. Print and broadcast journalism provide checks and balances to the activities of the state and of political leaders. Taiwan in particular requires an effective mass media because it faces profound choices: how to cope with the political and military challenge of China; how to build a competitive economy; and so on. These are choices that cannot be ignored. To not make a choice is to choose. Whatever the choice, it must not be made in ignorance. And it is here that organizations like the Taipei Times play a critical role.
What is important here is not the balance sheet of individual media organizations or whether their activities benefit the power of certain parties or political leaders. It is rather whether journalism helps the people ensure that their will is clearly reflected through the political system. It is the people, not shareholders or politicians, who are the core constituency of the media. Indeed, the Western metaphor for the media, "tribune of the people," refers to a Roman official whose duty was to represent the interests of the common people vis-a-vis the elite.
All democratic systems, even mature ones, distort the popular will to some extent -- through the role of money, for example, or the imperfections of institutions. The goal should be to reduce that distortion to a minimum. Doing so is particularly important in Taiwan, where the stakes -- the long-term future of 23 million people -- are high.
The mass media has two important roles to play in this regard. On the one hand, the media should provide the information that the public needs to understand the environment and issues that its political leaders and institutions face. But if the mass media ignore those topics and focus on the irrelevant or the sensational, the people suffer. And if the media provides information in an unprofessional or biased way, the people also suffer. If, for example, Taiwan's newspapers and TV stations either inaccurately exaggerate or minimize the military threat posed by China, how can the public judge the proper level of defense spending?
On the other hand, the mass media can provide a forum for the adherents of contending political stances to debate their policy proposals. It is through informed and substantive debate that the people come to understand the pros and cons of competing proposals. To continue the example above, when military experts debate what it is about China's military build-up that threatens Taiwan, the public benefits.
Because the media should safeguard the interests of all the people and not just one faction, it is important that individual organizations fairly represent views that are at odds with its own editorial line. Indeed, one test of whether a media organization stands for the interests of the people as a whole is whether it is prepared, when necessary, to criticize the political party or leaders whose views are closest to its own.
Some leading American newspapers have taken special measures in order to ensure professionalism, objectivity and fairness. They have appointed ombudsmen within the organization, to whom readers can complain about biased or sloppy coverage. They have hired as columnists individuals whose views are contrary to the paper's editorial line, to better foster debate among rival views.
Over the past five years, the Taipei Times has sought to follow the fundamental principal of the Liberty Times Group: "Taiwan First, Liberty Foremost." During that period, it has assumed an important position in Taiwan's media system and made a contribution to overseas understanding of Taiwan.
As the people of Taiwan face fundamental challenges in the future, the role and responsibility of the Taipei Times as the Taiwan people's tribune will only grow in importance.
Richard Bush is a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan.
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China appears to be using a new type of BZK-005 drone that might be capable of disrupting the radio communications in the Taiwanese military and causing the radar system to malfunction, a military source said yesterday. The military is closely monitoring traces of this upgraded drone after the Japanese Ministry of Defense recently captured images of a BZK-005 drone, which had a large number of antennas under the nose of the aircraft and a pod of unknown purpose attached under the belly of the craft. Defense experts in other countries had warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has bolstered
CHAMPION: Lin Yu-ting overcame adversity and intense international scrutiny on her path to Olympic victory. She said it means so much to win the gold for her country Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) emerged as Olympic champion in the women’s 57kg (featherweight) division on Saturday in Paris (Sunday in Taipei), despite facing online abuse due to gender misconceptions over the past two weeks. Lin defeated Julia Szeremeta of Poland by a unanimous 5-0 decision to clinch the gold, completing a long journey of redemption after being eliminated from the Tokyo Games in 2021 in her opening bout. Lin, who has been competing in women’s events since her boxing debut in September 2013, is the first Taiwanese boxer to win gold, after three other Taiwanese female boxers earned bronze medals in
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