Although Taiwan is threatened by China and ignored by the rest of the world, Taiwan remains one of Asia’s few democratic stars. But after Taiwan’s media have long been considered as a prime example of a free press, local journalists and international observers now criticize steps backwards in press freedom.

By Klaus Bardenhagen, Taipei

How difficult news reporting can be was experienced by Jenny Hsu. In December, a Chinese envoy came to Taiwan for talks, and the journalist from the newspaper Taipei Times would like to accompany the envoy on a symbolic trip to a famous lake. Together with around 100 other journalists, she waited on an officially arranged boat in the middle of the lake – and by calling a colleague by mobile she discovered that the envoy had changed his plans and was already on the way to a new destination. Several hours passed before the reporters were back on land. Two days earlier, government officials had sent them in the wrong direction in a bus because it withheld information about the destination – ostensibly for security reasons. “We were kept away, so we could not report too detailed about the Chinese envoy’s whereabouts” is Hsu sure about. Generally, the government’s press department has been less cooperative, said the journalist. Critical questions are often swept away or ignored.

Such statements make the alarm bells ring among international observers. In the latest statement from Reporters Without Borders, Taiwan fell 23 places down the ladder to No. 59 – and is now even worse positioned than the Chinese Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong. This hurts mostly the Taiwanese, they like to point out that they single-handedly defeated a dictatorship and build a democracy that is threaten by China – China has around 1,500 missiles targeted at Taiwan. Also, in the American organization ‘Freedom House’ ranking of press freedom, Taiwan dropped 11 seats after years of progress.

Complaints about illegal interference in the media are piling up since the change of government in 2008 when the 23 million Taiwanese voted Kuomintang (KMT) – the former dictator Chiang Kai-shek’s party – back into power. The Chinese nationalists, the KMT, who in 1949 fled from the mainland to Taiwan, controlled the island using court-martial and executed  thousands of opponents of the regime. Not until the democratization in the 1990s was the Cold War label “Free China” justified, and in 1996 the Taiwanese elected their president for the first time. Today, the society is divided into two mutually hostile camps. Although the KMT after eight years in opposition now confess to democracy, critics fear a return to the behavior pattern from the era of supremacy. “They’ve lost power once and will now ensure that this will not happen again,” says Chuang Feng-chia, President of the Association of Taiwan Journalists, ATJ. “Therefore, they need to bring the media under their control.”

Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) report on attempts by the government to influence the content of the state media. Thus, the director of the foreign radio station RTI stepped down only a few months after the change of government. His reason was that he was required not to report critical about China. In the state news agency CNA, the former KMT campaign’s spokesman became Vice President, although he has no journalistic experience. China and KMT-critical press releases were internally censored according to reports. Particularly bizarre is the controversy surrounding the public broadcaster PTS. With a change in the law itself, KMT secured a majority on the board – ostensibly to allow the public greater participation. Subsequently, a majority arose to ouster the politically unpopular PTS Chairperson Cheng. Due to a procedural error in the invitation for the meeting, he could attend and thereby prevent the temporarily appointment of a new chairmanship. In return, the government now accuses Cheng of having misused the station’s funds for this legal battle. Who draws the longest straw was still uncertain at the editorial deadline.

The government rejects the accusations and insists that it has never interfered in the affairs of state media. In addition, Taiwan’s newspapers are every day full of criticism of the government, said Premier Wu Den-yih at the request of the author. “Press freedom is the most valuable kind of freedom. We will continue to work to improve it”. Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders met with Taiwan’s official representative in Paris. The conversation should have been constructive, according to Asia-employee Vincent Brossel. We are confident of the coming years, dispute the recent reports of political interference exists.

Despite the diversity of Taiwan’s private media, they provide no guarantee of impartial coverage. The seven (!) Television news channels, as most of the newspapers, have political views supporting one or the other political camp. During the economic crisis, the government has also become a major advertiser in the media, said the former CNA-Chief (Taiwan’s largest news agency, ed.) and the government spokesman Su Tzen-ping. Many media seems to accept payment for tailored political messages presented as editorial reports. Self-censorship among journalists is also widespread, said Jenny Hsu from the KMT-critical newspaper Taipei Times. Often she hears from colleagues who work for government-friendly media: “I do not even need to write it, my editor change it anyway.” If the government actually calls and complain to the editors, she has no knowledge. “But the reporters know what is expected of them “.

Author: Klaus Bardenhagen (www.taiwanreporter.com) reports as a freelance correspondent from Taiwan. See links to the media and reports mentioned in the article on www.taiwanreporter.de/Medien (German)
Translation: Taiwan Corner

Original Article: TAZ – Alarmierende Entwicklung