Taiwan continues to drop down in the Freedom House press rankings, going from 43rd in 2008, to 47th in 2009, and now 48th in 2009. Taiwan is now ranked seventh in Asia-Pacific behind countries like Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, as opposed to be being ranked fourth in 2007.The report stated: "A growing trend of marketing disguised as news reports, a proposed legal amendment that would limit descriptions of crime and violence in the media, and licensing obstacles all contributed to these concerns."
Another major concern was Taiwan's improving relations with China. The report fears that with deepening commercial ties, media owners and some journalists whitewashed news about China to protect their own financial interests. For example, the reports notes that in a column commemorating historical events in both Taiwan and China written for the Want Daily newspaper, the author failed to mention the Tiananmen Square massacre, despite being published on June 4th, the date of its anniversary. The China Times Group, which owns Want Daily, is owned by Tsai Eng-meng, a businessman with "significant commercial interests in mainland China," the report said.
Another major concern was government intervention in the media, citing how the Taiwanese National Communications Commission refused broadcasting licenses to Next Media, the parent of top-grossing news publications in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Another concern was embedded marketing, or advertising disguised as news, which was brought to national attention when Dennis Huang, a reporter at the China Times resigned in protest at the state of the media, in which both big business and government "buy positive coverage." Furthermore, at least three foreign journalists found that their Yahoo email accounts had been compromised in a manner similar to the attacks on Google's system in China.
The DPP responded by corresponding the drop in ranking with the presidency of Ma Ying-jeou, saying that "the decline in ranking highlighted 'serious problems' in interaction between government and the media."
Government officials have promised to make improvements addressing all issues and to achieve better performance next year, starting with the passing of the Budget Act, which bans embedded marketing by government agencies.
http://taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/05/04/2003502357
Very interesting.
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