More than 1,000 academics and workers in the cultural sector signed a petition launched by communication academics to protest against the cross-strait service trade agreement, which would allow Chinese investment in the nation’s printing and advertising industries.
The petition has garnered more than a thousand signatures within two days of its launch, with National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Journalism director Hung Chen-ling (洪貞玲), National Chengchi University’s Department of Journalism chair Lin Yuan-huei (林元輝), National Taiwan Normal University’s Graduate Institute of Mass Communication director Kelly Hu (胡綺珍), National Chengchi University’s Department of Radio & Television chair Hsu Chiung-wen (許瓊文), Shih Hsin University’s Department of Journalism chair Hu Guang-shiash (胡光夏) and many professors from various universities’ communication-related departments among the petition’s initiators.
“As everybody knows, the media is directly and indirectly affected by the advertising industry, and freedom of speech is closely related to the publishing, printing, releasing and retailing industries,” Hung said at the press conference yesterday.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
It is also common sense that the signing of a free-trade agreement should not pose risks to national security, she added.
“As cross-strait exchanges have become more frequent, a fact needs to be kept in mind: Taiwan and China are still to an extent adversaries, hostile to each other and therefore exchanges between the two can pose security risks,” the petition said.
“As China continues to be a (post-)authoritarian country that employs strict censorship and limits freedom of expression, a service trade pact that liberalizes Chinese investment in publishing-related industries without undertaking comprehensive assessments on the impact on Taiwan’s related industries and freedom of speech would detrimentally threaten Taiwan’s vibrant, plural, democratic and free environment,” it said.
One of the petition’s initiators is former Presidential Office national policy adviser Rex How (郝明義), who is also a publisher.
At the press conference, How criticized Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai’s (龍應台) recent remarks about the pact not affecting the publishing industry because Chinese investment is “only allowed in the printing industry.”
“The relationship between printing, releasing, retailing and publishing as upstream and downstream industries can be paralleled to shoulders, arms, wrists and hands. Can you insist that your hands are not touched when your shoulders, arms and wrists have all been given away?” How asked.
Hu Yuan-hui (胡元輝), an associate professor at National Chung Cheng University’s Department of Communication, described the service trade pact as a “Faustian bargain,” saying that China’s influence on publishing-related industries was not aimed at economic gains, but at permeating every corner of the country with Chinese information.
Laurent Shen (沈志儒), creative director of Moulin-Orange (橘子磨坊), a company operating in the advertising industry, said that “Taiwan is not free anymore,” adding that in the signature collection campaign in support of the Sunflower movement within the industry, many working in the field were “only willing to support in private due pressure from you-know-what.”
He said Taiwan’s advertising industry is not afraid of international competition, but of “a liberalization and competition that forces the forfeiture of free consciousness.”
‘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