Beijing's efforts to improve its media technology are part of its public opinion warfare against Taiwan, an expert attending a cross-strait forum said yesterday, while calling on citizen reporters to help push press freedom and democracy in China.
Wang Tan-ping (汪誕平), director of the state-owned Radio Taiwan International (RTI), said since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May last year, media exchanges and cooperation between Taipei and Beijing have increased. However, the relationship between Taiwanese media and their Chinese counterpart is complicated.
“While there is cooperation, there is also competition. They have become more open, but there are still many restrictions,” he said. “There are some breakthroughs, but there are obstructions. There are exchanges, and yet there are still doubts.”
Wang made the remarks during a forum entitled “Cross-Strait Media Exchanges and Cooperation in the WEB2.0 Era.” The event was co-sponsored by Ming Chuan University at the Ambassador Hotel in Taipei yesterday morning.
Wang said while the size of China's newspapers and of its Web and mobile phone users are much bigger than Taiwan's, Taiwan leads in the size of its of satellite news gathering (SNG) network, with 82 SNG units in 2006.
Despite improvements in Chinese media technology, Wang said Beijing still considers the media a tool for propaganda and opinion warfare.
However, the increasing popularity of citizen reporters could serve as a catalyst for press freedom and democratic politics in China, Wang said.
Meanwhile, Wenny Wang (王文靜), CEO of Business Weekly, raised the question of what the future holds for media that are heavily dependent on subscription and retail sales when free content is easily accessible on the Web.
Taking the US magazine BusinessWeek as an example, Wenny Wang said the 80-year-old publication was sold to Bloomberg. Although the weekly has ventured into China, it is barely surviving because it is not familiar with the massive Chinese market.
“They have been there for a long time, but they have had a hard time biting into the big pie,” she said.
China Television chairman Lin Sheng-fen (林聖芬) said he hoped to see media outlets on both sides of the Strait gain more and freer access, adding that he would also like to see Taiwan and Beijing relax regulations to allow media outlets to establish branches on each side.
Given Beijing's tight grip on the media, Lin said Chinese have taken full advantage of the Web to integrate civic forces. He expected to see these private forces help each side better understand each other and eventually bring change to China.
Yang Jen-feng (楊仁烽), president of the Economic Daily News, said as China is becoming more open, the outside world is getting to know it better.
The media cooperation between Taipei and Beijing is multi-faceted, he said, including content, capital, technology and products.
Yang said both sides were bound to develop a closer relationship on various fronts, including media, after signing an economic cooperation framework agreement and financial memorandum of understanding.
‘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
RSS