GIO refutes Taiwan's drop in int'l press rankings

In the 2009 Press Freedom Index released Tuesday by Reporters without Borders (RSF, after its French name Reporters San Frontiers), Taiwan dropped 23 places from 36th to 59th.

“The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately-owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom.” the RSF said on its Web site.

In response to the ranking drop, Su Jun-pin, head of the Government Information Office, said that most media and TV channels in Taiwan are not pressured for being critical of the government.

“We cannot accept this [criticism of government's interference of the media from the RSF],” Su said.

The RSF does not specify on the comment on its Web site but it is believed to be referring to a complaint RSF received last December from Taiwan's state-owned Public Television Service Foundation (PTSF), overseer of the Public Television Service (PTS), Hakka Television, Indigenous Television and China Television Service, which accused the government of attempting to influence these media by freezing half of the PTSF's budget.

The RSF may also be referring to the violent reaction by protestors, mainly pro-independence activists, during the tour of Chen Yunlin, mainland China's highest official ever to visit Taiwan last November. Reporters were pushed around by both protestors and police in the incident. Some were injured by objects thrown by protestors, who also pushed two reporters from mainland Chinese media organizations to the ground.

Kuang Chung-hsiang, assistant professor of communication in National Chung Cheng University and chairman of the Taiwan Media Watch, told the China Post that it has been the norm in Taiwan that governments pick people sympathetic to their political stance to head state-owned media.

“The only difference is that these actions were done more obviously recently,” he said, referring to the PTSF incident last December.

Business-oriented practices such as placement marketing are also hampering press freedom in Taiwan as they take away the independence of the media companies, he said, adding that citizen reporting is limited in Taiwan where access is often granted only to institutional reporters.

Hsi Hsien-te, professor of Journalism and Communication Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, explained to the China Post that the drop in RSF ranking does not necessarily mean a worsening of Taiwan's media freedom.

“Ranking is relative. It might simply mean that other countries are improving,” he said, “I cannot comment on the ranking without knowing how the RSF index was compiled.”

The RSF ranked Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden as the countries with the freest press. The African country Eritrea was considered the worst country for press freedom by the RSF, ranking 175th. Mainland China is not far ahead, ranking 168th.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email