The article below was published on the Taiwan Today website on 20 May 2011. However, it was not available on that website on 25 May. I have recovered the article from Google cache and reproduced it in full here. I have sent an e-mail to Taiwan Today asking them to explain why the article is no longer available on their website. I will update this post if I receive a response from Taiwan Today. 

Is Taiwan’s press freedom slip-sliding away?

• Publication Date：05/20/2011

• Source： Taiwan Today

• By  Tito Bacchus

In the latest press freedom survey released earlier this month by U.S.-based think tank FreedomHouse, Taiwan’s media was assessed as being “free,” sharing 48th spot along with five other countries. The ranking, which puts the nation behind only Japan in Asia, was trumpeted by the ROC government as recognition of its efforts to preserve Taiwan’s vibrant news environment.

On the surface, the result could be perceived as a good one for the Kuomintang administration. After all, since taking office in May 2008, the government has regularly come in for stick from media watchdogs over efforts to keep criticism of ROC President Ma Ying-jeou to the bare minimum while doing everything possible to maximize the mainland Chinese feel-good factor.

But upon delving a little deeper into the report, Taiwan’s score of 25 out of 100 is shown to be down on last year and 2009’s results by one and two points respectively. In addition, the country’s global ranking slipped from 47th in 2009 and 43rd in 2008.

This performance puts Taiwan in Freedom House’s 3-6 point decline category over the past five years with bastions of the free press such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Government Information Office Minister Philip Yang, the KMT administration’s new kid on the block when it comes to spin-doctoring, did his best to respond to the survey. He pointed to Taiwan’s top performance in Asia and conceded that embedded marketing had played a part in the three-year drop. This admission raised few eyebrows, however, as Freedom House had already identified the practice as the cause of Taiwan’s declining ranking, and the U.S. State Department had highlighted it for mention in the latest human rights report on Taiwan.

According to Yang, embedded marketing would no longer be a problem in Taiwan as all levels of government were banned from paying to publish fake news following the Legislature’s approval of an amendment to the Budget Act in January. Further safeguards, including the requirement that official policy explanations run by the print and broadcast media had to be clearly labeled as advertising, were also in the pipeline courtesy of pending changes to the Cable Radio and Television, Radio and Television, and Satellite Broadcasting acts.

The National Communication Commission, Taiwan’s media watchdog, welcomed these revisions and said it was working on a series of complementary measures to ensure a total clamp down on embedded marketing. The NCC sent a strong message to the private sector that it would no longer tolerate this practice when it pulled the license of ERA Communications Co. Ltd.’s TV variety channel last December for blurring the line between advertising and programming. This decision, the NCC said, was forced upon it by the station’s refusal to take corrective action following a warning issued 12 months before to lift its game.

On paper, these measures appear tough enough to make headway on the issue. But the proof of the pudding lies in whether organizations receiving more than 50 percent of their funding from the public coffers can kick their addiction to embedded marketing and get Taiwan’s Freedom House score moving in the right direction. Given the staggering amount of money involved, as well as the media’s heavy reliance on this source of revenue, the safe bet is on this practice continuing to the detriment of Taiwan’s democracy.

There is no question that embedded marketing has compromised Taiwan’s press, but of greater concern is that the practice doubles as a Trojan horse for those on the other side of the Taiwan Strait seeking to exert subversive control over the media and shape the nation’s agenda.

It is no secret that local news outlets are accepting payments from Beijing to run glowing stories promoting cross-strait “breakthroughs,” provincial trade delegations and cultural exchanges. According to Taipei-based nonprofit Foundation for the Advancement of Media Excellence, the China Times and United Daily News published 69 and 30 advertorials paid for with mainland Chinese money, respectively, during the first nine months of last year.

While the value of these deals is difficult to ascertain due to gentlemen’s agreements not to report on the transactions, the foundation considers them substantial enough to influence the editorial independence of the affected publications. This pursuit of filthy lucre confirms Taiwan’s media barons cannot be trusted to protect press freedom and the government must respond by tightening regulatory control over financial aspects of the industry.

Although fully aware of this situation, the government chooses not to interfere in the name of cross-strait reconciliation. Protecting the nation’s press freedom from enemies outside the gate no longer seems to be the priority it once was during the post-martial law era.

With all signs indicating Taiwan’s hard-won independent media environment is slip-sliding away, those in a position to influence Ma need to make him understand that this situation can only be addressed through progressive policymaking. Declining press freedom will hole the country’s democracy below the waterline and further isolate it from like-minded friends and supporters around the world—an outcome neither in the ROC nor people’s interests.

—Tito Bacchus is a freelance writer based in Montreal, Canada. These views are the author’s and not necessarily those of Taiwan Today. Copyright © 2011 by Tito Bacchus

Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mail.gio.gov.tw