War on freedom of the press

Taiwan's NCC, Want Want's chairman, and local journalists can diffuse the war of words over CTV and CTI's managements by no longer discussing it, writes Joe Hung

The China Post
Monday, July 13, 2009

By Joe Hung

Tsai Yen-ming is bitter. The founder of a rice cracker snack empire must be, rightfully, though he doesn't like to say what's the real cause of his deserved unmitigable indignation.

Tsai, who has built up his Want Want conglomerate from scratch, purchased The China Times media group from Albert Yu last year. Two affiliates of the group, China Television CTV and Chung Tien CTI, were owned by the Kuomintang (KMT), which had to sell them to Yu because a new law had been passed to get political parties out of the management of electronic media. Yu was able to have his new management of CTV and CTI duly registered with the National Communications Commission, a newly created government agency in charge of supervising the broadcasting industry because channels belong to the public.

When he tried to do what Yu did, Tsai hit a snag. The NCC didn't want to approve the registration of the Tsai management of CTV and CTI right away. There were, of course, a hundred and one reasons for the dilly-dallying, the real one being the unprofessed suspicion that Tsai might be working as a front for China's media united front campaign. The suspicion is somewhat legitimate: Tsai has made his fortune in China, and likely to have used Chinese money to buy Yu's two electronic media. As a result, the NCC, after a couple of public hearings, approved the registration of the Tsai management with six provisos early last month. One of them is the limitation of Chinese-owned shares in CTV and CTI.

The business tycoon was furious. He complained and protested against the NCC's "autocratic" decision, insisting that he earned every penny he has invested in the two media over which it has the right of oversight by law. There isn't a Chinese penny invested in the two media, he has continued to argue, albeit the share limitation, as a matter of fact, doesn't have any real adverse effect on their operation. But Tsai suspected at least two NCC commissioners were trying what they could to prevent him from running CTV and CTI. So he began zeroing in on them. One of them retaliated, not very graciously, by going on the record by stating that a rice cracker maker made rich shouldn't deserve to head mass communications media, which belong to the public. That's the last straw. And it's the real cause of his ire.

Tsai ran a half-page ad in The China Times he also owns, firing a broadside at the NCC and a number of journalism academics (most of them probably never working as practicing journalists) who have offered uncalled-for comments in favor of the supervisory commission or against the Want Want group. The war over what both sides call freedom of the press broke out. One thing Tsai shouldn't have done is to send registered letters to those in the academic ivory tower, threatening to sue them. That prompted the threatened academics to rally 150 college journalism instructors behind them to do battle against the Want Want chief executive. They signed a joint statement charging Tsai with encroaching upon freedom of the press that he is duty-bound to uphold, and called a press conference at the Legislative Yuan to make it public. They didn't threaten a boycott of The China Times, CTV and CTI, as two "associations" of people concerned about press freedom had done before to gag him.

Finally, Tsai tried to offer an olive branch by visiting two top academics to explain his case. The two professors urged him to apologize. He told them it's extremely difficult, if not next to impossible, that he comply. He promised to consider, however. A cease-fire is now in place.

The war is totally and absolutely unnecessary. For one thing, the NCC has forgotten its sole raison d'etre is protection of the rights of the public to be informed without interference from any quarters, not supervision and control over the electronic media. Do NCC commissioners truly believe they can control the management of CTV and CTI by limiting Chinese investment in the two TV networks? On the other hand, their warning and insult violate, just as Tsai has threatened the academics, his freedom of speech, which the NCC is equally duty-bound to protect. Of course, the journalism professors have their right to speak up on anything they wish. It's their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. But the fact is that few, if any, commented in Tsai's favor. Such comments were offered by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers instead. Well, they don't like whatever decision the KMT government may take. That gives the clientele of CTV and CTI a very plausible excuse that the academics were trying to help their former colleagues who are now NCC commissioners. Would all concerned forget about their unwanted war as soon as possible?

I know full well that it is terribly difficult for them to sign an agreement of peace. The NCC can never retract any of the provisos. Tsai can't offer an apology which he believes isn't due. The professors have to continue demanding that the apology is offered.

But there's a very easy way out. The press can decide to gag itself. All media can kill any story about the war over press freedom. Editors simply ask their reporters not to gather any news about the war that few readers or viewers are really interested in. Above all, all combatants can keep their mouths shut. That may hurt their ego, but that's the easiest way to end the war once and for all.

Date Posted: 7/13/2009