C. P. Scot, the celebrated editor of the Manchester Guardian, warned journalists: “Facts are sacred, but opinions are free.”We feel duty-bound to point out facts have been distorted to form biased opinions by some of fellow journalists in Taipei.
One case in point is a commentary that appeared in an English-language paper of late.It charged the Kuomintang with controlling the media and the National Communications, but no facts were cited to substantiate the accusation.The Kuomintang was maligned.
First of all, the author compared the Kuomintang to the Chinese Communist Party that still places the press under its thumb.He pointed to the Kuomintang press control during the February 28 Incident of 1947 and justified the SET TV fabrication of footage by claiming it had to be used for lack of real documentary records which the then ruling party must have destroyed.The fact is that the incident was reported by correspondents Chinese news organizations had stationed in Taiwan.The CCP used reports from Taipei to blast the Kuomintang for oppressing the people of Taiwan and urge them to rise against the oppressors.No pictures were taken, because there were no press workers who had any chance to take any shot.The Kuomintang couldn’t destroy non-existent documentaries.
Another episode cited is the closing of an underground radio station by the commission.Ocean Voice Radio, “devoted to Taiwan’s normalization,” claimed it had not intended to broadcast illegally and had applied several times for a license, only to be refused.No one knows how many underground radio stations there are in Taiwan and all of them have to be closed, but most of them are in operation simply because the Government Information Office let them for reasons known only to itself.Besides, Ocean Voice might not be eligible, because it could not fulfill the requirements for licensing.
Still another is the failure of the commission, which is claimed to be controlled by the Kuomintang, to close the TBVS cable channel.In fact, the GIO had tried in vain to revoke the TV station’s license.TVBS was declared a persona non grata by President Lee Teng-hui for repeated exposes of scandals involving his Kuomintang government.The channel may be fully owned by foreign investors, but certainly isn’t under Kuomintang control.
Besides, the commentary claims the commission is still monopolizing and controlling the media.The commission isn’t under Kuomintang control, either.A commissioner, suspended by Premier Su Tseng-chang, was an appointee of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.Moreover, the commission can regulate electronic media alone.The print media are under nobody’s control.
Yes, the Kuomintang exercised press control in Taiwan.It doesn’t and can’t anymore.While it did, the Kuomintang didn’t dare undertake pre-publication censorship, which the Democratic Progressive Party government openly imposed on Today magazine in 2005 by raiding its offices and seizing an unpublished edition that exposed the slush fund kept by the National Security Bureau.
（本文刊載於96.06.11 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）
