Taiwan ranks 47th in the level of media independence among 197 countries and territories surveyed in the Freedom of the Press 2014 report, topped only by Japan at No. 42 in East Asia.
Taiwan and Japan are the only Asian countries listed as free in the report, with just 5 percent of the Asia-Pacific population enjoying unfettered access to the media in 2013.
“We see declines in media freedom on a global level, driven by governments’ efforts to control the message and punish the messenger,” Freedom of the Press project director Karin Karlekar said.
Attempts to control the news by harassing the journalists, targeting foreign press, clamping down on new media and controlling content via ownership were cited by the organization as triggers for global declines in media freedom last year.
In the report, each country is assigned a numerical score on a scale of 0 to 100, based on overall performance in the three subcategories of legal, political and economic environments. A score from zero to 30 stands for a free press environment, 31 to 60 partly free and 61 to 100 not free. Taiwan received a score of 26 for its performance in 2013.
In a year described as a decade low by Freedom House, one in seven people live in a country with free press. Taiwan’s strong performance was particularly praiseworthy given the downgrading of regional neighbors Hong Kong and Thailand to partly free. (YHC-JSM)
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