Community groups are working together to monitor the nation's media and help shape a new regulatory environment.
A regular feature on TV news is the image of half-naked men, cowering behind crooked arms to cover their homosexual identities from the public eye, at parties "raided" by the police. The media seem always to be present on such surprise police work --indeed their presence has led some to condemn the situation as a violation of the rights to privacy and due process of law. The raids are just one instance of the media infringing on civil rights that has caused a groundswell in popular action and regulatory reform.
Tsen Chao-yuan, secretary-general of the Awakening Foundation (AF), a woman's rights advocacy group, says that the media need to be reminded of their low awareness of various social issues and relevant regulations. "Many reporters feel justified giving their audiences access to very detailed information," she says, "regardless of the outcome."
Sensationalistic reportage on homosexuals, the mentally ill, women and other members of society has caused a backlash among the public, and many groups are springing up to monitor the media coverage for bias and unfair characterizations. In 2003, the AF formed a committee to monitor how the print media deal with gender issues.
Ignorance Is No Longer Bliss
Reports in a major newspaper of accidents involving mental patients in February this year aroused the ire of their families and supporters for the irresponsible coloring of the facts. Phrases such as "unexploded time bombs" and "yet another upsetting case of mental illness" were used to describe the mentally ill. "Maybe they don't harbor malicious intent, and maybe they simply reflect existing social views," says Kuang Chung-shiang, president of the Media Watch Foundation (MWF), "but they reinforce stereotypes of disadvantaged groups and push them farther to the margins of society."
A week after the families and supporters of the mental patients protested outside the newspaper's headquarters, the newspaper publicly promised to urge its editors and reporters to employ more neutral phraseology in stories on the disadvantaged. "They didn't apologize to the mental patients though," says Kuang. "They just don't act like responsible people."
The reason that the media do not respond more graciously may be that they do not consider their errors that big a deal--if no obvious violation of the law is committed, what is the problem? "When mental patients are presented to audiences as bombs ready to go off at any time, it's the media that conjure up the illusion of a potential explosion," says Tsen.
In August last year, following the controversy around the renewal of television broadcasting licenses by the Government Information Office (GIO), the AF, the MWF and other nonprofit organizations established an alliance calling for public participation in reshaping the media. Now this citizens' alliance includes more than 60 groups with concerns in different areas ranging from the rights of aborigines to immigrants. For the time being, the alliance mainly pays attention to cable TV news. "Our members reflect the pluralistic nature of society," says Tsen.
The coming together of such a broad swathe of social activists indicates a high level of dissatisfaction with the media. "Journalists tend to lack sensitivity to the complexity of civil society," Kuang says. "Perhaps unknowingly, they represent a highly educated, middle-class view."
He thinks that, without reflection on class identity, well-trained reporters can write very biased stories even though they present different views from different angles. Executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Media Excellence, Lu Shih-hsiang, agrees. "More often than not, what audiences see is a many-sided, but totally disorderly picture of complicated social realities," he says.
Rampant commercialism makes it even harder to tell a story that fully respects or adequately acknowledges different aspects and values in a society. Kuang points out that because they do not have enough time for subtle coverage of multilayered topics, the media tend to select the more exciting parts to gratify voyeuristic audiences. Wang Cheng-tong, director of media and education at the AF, laments that even the poignant story of Deng Ru-wun, a woman who murdered her husband in 1993 after suffering years of abuse and thus drew public and legislative attention to domestic violence, was depicted as a melodrama. "And this was a retrospective of a very significant event in Taiwan's history of women's rights!" she says.
Getting in Shape
The quest for consumers' attention is natural and reasonable in a capitalist society, and sensationalism has been a prime method of attracting news consumers in Taiwan. Consequently, media coverage spends less time on public-interest stories and local news. Many programs on local radio stations, for example, are part of a syndicated, nationwide network. "That's why I'd prefer public TV and radio systems be expanded," Kuang says. "We need to build a more diverse media environment that includes more alternative or specialized content."
Before the structure of the media industry can be transformed significantly, however, there must be effective regulation. Tsen suggests active public involvement in keeping an eye on the media, both from within and without. In March this year, more than 100 TV stations formed a business association. Among its six committees, it has one for news self-discipline and another for news consultation. People recommended by the citizens' alliance will occupy the majority of seats on the consultation committee. "Now at least media operators are willing to sit down and talk to us," Tsen says. She believes that, in a gradual and accumulative process, even the involvement of nonprofit groups in media companies' in-house training could help reshape the media.
To help provide the media with feedback, the MWF has designed a simple questionnaire to let people better express their dissatisfaction with TV shows. Completed questionnaires can be posted, emailed or faxed to the foundation, which collects and categorizes the complaints before passing them on to the media and publishing them on its Web site. The citizens' alliance trains volunteers to regularly provide their observations and criticism. Kuang hopes to mobilize the alliance's 40,000 subscribers to forward e-newsletters from the MWF and other groups concerned with media reform in order to establish a broad base of support.
An Independent Body
Tsen hopes that the public participation mechanism can also be applied to the National Communications Commission (NCC), an independent media regulatory body intended to ensure fair competition in the marketplace and to protect the public interest. Its freedom from political interference, however, is already being questioned because of the partisan rancor caused by the selection of commissioners. In February of this year, the Executive Yuan appointed nine commissioners. Three of the nominees refused to accept their appointments after receiving approval from the Legislature.
Since both the NCC nominees and their reviewers were put forward by the four major political parties in proportion to their seats in the Legislative Yuan, many critics, including Lu Shih-hsiang, see the formation of the NCC as just another episode in the years of bitter rivalry between the Executive Yuan and the Legislature, which is controlled by the opposition. In fact, even the legality of the organization is being challenged, and its survival depends on a ruling on its constitutional legitimacy by the Council of Grand Justices. "The grand justices must have a headache trying to figure out the constitutionality of this institutional novelty," says Su Yeong-chin, the NCC chairman and professor of law at National Chengchi University.
With its jurisdiction framed by very loose guidelines in the Basic Communications Act, the new agency has a great deal of space in which to define and wield its authority. Su points out that, in contrast with the politically appointed head of the GIO, which has handed over its jurisdiction of broadcasting affairs to the NCC, the new commission makes decisions by committee and is independent of the government. For this reason, it seems unnecessary to follow the GIO's model of consulting scholars and experts before reaching a consensus on media management. However, Su says that the NCC may incorporate a consultative system when the gender and expertise of incumbent commissioners fail to reflect the pluralistic nature of society. For example, there is currently only one female commissioner at present.
Su thinks that the NCC will lean toward a loose media management stance. The present two-year duration of satellite TV operation licenses, for example, will be extended. The new agency will also pay attention to ACNielsen's domination of the media ratings business. "It makes an enormous profit," says Su. By and large, the chairman says that self-regulation is the best policy. He thinks the GIO hit on a good idea last year when it required each TV news channel that wanted to renew its license to produce a documentary-like review of its own programming. "Of course we must monitor the sincerity of such self-reflection," says Su.
Lu Shih-hsiang, for one, is not very optimistic. "The media can't possibly regulate themselves with real sincerity," he says. "Nor will they allow nonprofit groups to shape their editorial policy." A former newspaper reporter, Lu believes that in addition to commercial motivation and a lack of professional competence, pride has disfigured Taiwan's media. "The fourth estate's pride has ballooned as democracy has developed," he says. "In the context of Taiwan's seething debate on national and cultural identity, the media simply take a certain political stance instead of offering a buffer zone or conciliatory approach. Now the media are so arrogant they have no idea who or what they are."
Lu says that the political bias in the media is obvious. After a shift in power to a Democratic Progressive Party administration in 2000, Lu thinks that audiences have been besieged by negative information about Taiwan and positive coverage of China. A recent survey conducted by the Institute for National Policy Research showed that misconceptions about China are common. When asked if China is a free and democratic country, about 14 percent, mostly young people below 30 years old, said yes, while 20 percent said they have no idea. This is reminiscent of the situation before 1987 when most Taiwanese people did not know they were living under martial law because the major media, all closely watched by the government, rarely discussed related laws and their stifling effects.
Pessimistic as he is, Lu still seizes all opportunities to help raise media awareness by giving talks to primary and high school teachers. His organization regularly publishes performance reviews of newspapers, and its lawyers help with legal action against improper reporting. "It's my own way of causing a sensation," he says.