Taiwan's press
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: February 01, 2013
WAVING black-and-red flags emblazoned with the word "fury", a sea of nearly 100,000 supporters of the opposition flooded the grounds outside the office of Taiwan's president on January 13th. They formed the largest protest against the president, Ma Ying-jeou, since he was elected to a second term, a year ago. The crowds demanded that Mr Ma step down over the ailing condition of their island's economy. The rally, which was organised by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had another, newer theme too: media freedom. Protesters were demanding that regulators block the acquisition of the young democracy's most popular newspaper, the Apple Daily, by a consortium that is widely perceived as being cosy with the government of mainland China. The DPP's leader, Su Tseng-chang, accused Mr Ma of doing nothing while pro-Beijing corporations snap up Taiwanese media outlets. "The media freedom that I have witnessed Taiwanese people fight for with bravery and even their own lives is being destroyed," Mr Su told the cheering crowd.
Taiwan has seen many feisty demonstrations of late. Mr Ma, first elected in 2008, has eased over six decades of hostilities with the mainland, which regards Taiwan as a renegade bit of its own sovereign territory, by signing nearly 20 trade and investment pacts across the strait. Mr Ma says this saves Taiwan from economic marginalisation. China, for its part, believes this bolsters its long-term goal of political unification. As Taiwanese companies, including media owners, see their fortunes increasingly tied to the mainland, critics of Mr Ma's policies say that China will use its clout to muzzle criticism in the press and to Sinicise Taiwan's separate culture, either by applying direct pressure to the media owners or by indirectly persuading journalists to self-censor. Political scientists say the resulting situation would be is similar to what has happened in Hong Kong since its handover to the mainland in 1997.
Worries converge on Tsai Eng-meng, a Beijing-friendly media baron, whose snack business in China has made him one of Taiwan's richest men. After he added the influential China Times to his stable of newspapers, magazines and television stations in 2008, critics say the paper started to echo views from the mainland and grew reluctant to raise sensitive issues, such as unrest in Tibetan areas. The alarm increased when Tsai Eng-meng told the Washington Post that the number of people who were killed when China crushed the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 had been greatly exaggerated.
Then in November a flamboyant pro-democracy publisher in Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai, sold off his Taiwan print-media businesses, including the critical Apple Daily, to a consortium that includes Mr Tsai's son. Fresh protests erupted, stoked by the fear of a strengthening, pro-Beijing monopoly on the media. The China Times and Apple Daily newspapers combined would have a market share of nearly 50%, if regulators approve the deal.
Mr Ma denies the claim that Taiwan's press freedom is at risk. George Tsai, an editorial writer at the China Times and a friend to Tsai Eng-meng (but no relation), says his paper's owner is not a stooge of the government in Beijing: granted, he supports reunification, but only rarely does he meet with Chinese officials. And he will criticise them too, if need be.
University students are at the forefront of the protests. In one incident around 200 of them eschewed New Year's Eve celebrations in favour of a rainy all-night sit-in near the presidential office. They were greeted at dawn by a phalanx of riot police standing behind shields.
Their movement will undoubtedly give the DPP new momentum, but the party still needs to find a way to negotiate with the economic powerhouse across the Taiwan Strait, which reviles all talk of independence, if it is to win the presidential election in 2016. In other respects the climate is favourable: Mr Ma faces a record-low level of public satisfaction, measured at 13%. The KMT might need to absorb the protesters' ideas to some extent if it is to remain in power.
KMT lawmakers seem to be taking notice. At first they supported the DPP-sponsored draft legislation to prevent the growth of media monopolies. On January 11th however they voted them down in parliament, on the advice of Mr Ma's media regulators, who said the plans were not well considered. Mr Ma says Taiwan still needs such legislation. His government will send fresh draft bills to parliament March. Even if they were enacted, it is not clear whether these laws would prevent the takeover already under way. The prospect of anyone's winning ultimate control over the media is complicated by the fact that while China's economic clout is ever rising, so too is the sense of a separate, distinctly Taiwanese identity.
找出與中國的談判方式，就能贏得2016大選
2013-02-01 Web only 作者：經濟學人
1月13 日，近十萬名支持者舉著寫有「火大」二字的旗幟，在總統府外發動遊行；這是馬英九連任以來所面臨的最大規模反馬遊行。此次遊行由支持台獨的民進黨組織，除了經濟問題之外，還有另一個比較新的主題：媒體自由。
馬英九08年上任後，緩和了兩岸超過60年的敵對狀態，也簽署近20項兩岸貿易和投資協定。馬英九表示，此舉可以讓台灣免於經濟邊緣化，中國則相信此舉有助完成統一這個長期目標。
隨著台灣企業的命運日漸與中國相連，馬英九的批評者也指出，中國會運用其影響力來壓制媒體。政治科學家認為，結果可能就會與香港在97年回歸中國後相似。
各項疑慮則匯聚於親北京的媒體大亨蔡衍明；批評者指出，中時集團被蔡衍明收購之後，就越來越不願報導西藏暴動等敏感議題。11月，黎智英決定將《蘋果日報》賣給聯合收購團，而蔡衍明的兒子亦是收購團的成員之一，新一輪的示威也隨之爆發。如果此併購案獲得核可，《中國時報》和《蘋果日報》合計將擁有近50%的市佔率。
民進黨無疑可以獲得一定的動能，但民進黨如果想贏得2016年總統大選，還是得找出與中國的談判方式。其他方面的情勢則有利於民進黨；馬英九的支持率跌至新低，國民黨可能得吸收一些示威者的想法，才有辦法繼續掌權。
國民黨立委似乎注意到了這點，一開始也支持民進黨提出的反媒體壟斷修法，卻在1月11日於立法院阻擋修法。馬英九表示，台灣仍舊需要這樣的立法，也會在3月將新版草案送交立法院。（黃維德譯）
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