The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced Taiwan’s finalists for the worldwide “Democracy Video Challenge” (DVC).
AIT Director Stephen Young, who presented certificates to the Taiwanese finalists at a news conference, said the AIT launched the contest in Taiwan in October to engage individuals from Taiwan in a global dialogue on democracy.
“The challenge provided an opportunity for dialogue and exchange on the important subject of democracy,” Young said. “Democracy is a fundamental value shared by the people of the US and the people of Taiwan.”
Michael Kau (高英茂), former deputy foreign minister and a senior fellow of event partner Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD), said the competition was significant on three levels.
While it demonstrates the US’ soft power in promoting democracy, it also serves as a platform for young people to think about what democracy is, Kau said.
“It also provides a chance for Taiwanese people to think about the nature of our own democracy and in which direction our democratic development should go,” he said.
Announced by the AIT last fall, the DVC is a worldwide competition initiated by the US Department of State that asks budding filmmakers, democracy advocates and the general public to create three-minute YouTube videos that complete the phrase, “Democracy is ....”
Selected by a panel of democracy advocates, film scholars and AIT representatives, the Taiwanese finalists are DBC Jmovie-Democracy, Goldfish, Ocean, Democracy and Democracy.
Lee Chia-hua (李佳樺) and Chang Chia-yun (張佳筠), freshmen at National Taiwan University’s Department of Filmmaking who made Democracy, said that to them, democracy is respecting and listening to others so that everyone can create a better world together.
Lee said that through making the video, she had a deeper understanding of the meaning of democracy, especially when she had to research Taiwanese pro-democracy events.
Asked if the theme of the challenge might be a bit too serious, Chang said democracy did not have to just be a serious topic, but rather an interesting one, depending on the angle from which people approach it.
Seven winning videos — one each from Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Near East and North Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere, as well as one anonymous video — will be chosen through public voting on YouTube.
They will be eligible for an all-expenses paid trip to the US that includes screenings of their videos in New York, Hollywood and Washington, meetings with film directors, public officials and democracy advocates, and visits to film sets and TV studios.
Yesterday’s awards ceremony was co-hosted by the Taiwanese partners of the DVC, the TFD, the Council for Cultural Affairs, Chinese Taipei Film Archive, Taiwan Film and Culture Association, SPOT Taipei Film House and National Taiwan University of the Arts.
The Taiwanese finalists’ videos can be found at www.videochallenge.america.gov/video.html
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and