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HK media woes show risks facing Taiwan
By Lu I-ming 呂一銘
Hong Kong media outlets that used to prize their independence, such as TVB, the Hong Kong Economic Journal and the Ming Pao Daily News, have over time been yielding to concerns about “political correctness” influenced by the economic interests of the people in China who run them.
Some outlets have replaced their chief editors, editorial staff and reporters, while there has been a marked shift in the orientation of the news commentary of others.
In some cases, irresistible financial and political pressures have pushed these outlets into making gradual concessions, with the result that the media are losing their credibility.
One example is a bogus report published by the Ta Kung Pao on April 18 last year about a taxi driver who had Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) as a passenger. The report caused an uproar when it was revealed to be a hoax and the incident and its aftermath were reported around the world.
As the territory’s media outlets fall one by one, it becomes more clear that their loss of credibility has something to do with Xi’s emphasis on maintaining stability and with a series of measures that the Chinese government has taken to “rectify” media and the Internet.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has said on a number of occasions that the country’s political and judicial organs are the organs of state power of the people’s democratic dictatorship — the blade that the party and people wield to delete all expressions of incorrect ideas.
Such comments clearly illustrate the thoughts and actions of the Chinese Communist Party regime.
What of Taiwan? At a meeting of the Central Standing Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sept. 18 last year, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his role as KMT chairman, gave his seal of approval to a proposal for the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to set up representative offices in each other’s territory.
It can be foreseen that when China sets up a representative office in Taiwan, its role will be similar to that played by the Chinese central government’s liaison offices in Hong Kong and Macau.
On Ma’s orders, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) has been busy traveling to implement this proposal step by step.
At a cross-strait forum on media prospects that was held in Beijing last month, the Chinese authorities explicitly ruled out inviting two of Taiwan’s mainstream newspapers — the Liberty Times and the Apple Daily — to take part, plainly showing how confident they feel about treating Taiwan however they want.
As was to be expected, the state-run Taiwanese media that took part in the forum accepted this announcement without a word of complaint.
Visiting Taiwan for the first time last year, Chen Ping (陳平), founder of Hong Kong weekly iSun Affairs, said that Taiwan had shifted from occupying the high ground to the low ground.
He said that special historical and geographical factors had led to Taiwan establishing the first ethnic Chinese society that was both a democracy and governed by the rule of law, making it a beacon to others, but that this beacon had covered itself with a piece of cloth and said: “I have no light to shed.”
Chen lamented that Taiwan had not given full play to the power of influence that its institutional, cultural and economic superiority should give it.
Now, as Taiwanese observe the sorry sight of Hong Kong media outlets sinking, can they really just turn a blind eye and carry on?
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News.
Translated by Julian Clegg
source: Taipei Times
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