The mass media in Taiwan is considered to be one of the freest and most competitive in Asia. Cable TV usage is high (around 80%) and there is also a wide selection of newspapers available covering most political viewpoints.
Taiwan's media history
While Taiwan's media freedom may rank among the top few nations in Asia today, its progress to its current state of vibrancy was not without a struggle.
The
Japanese occupation of Taiwan
The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became a dependency of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The sh ...
from 1895 to 1945 did not slow down the pace of economic modernisation on the island; the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
(KMT, Nationalist Party) also built on the successes of its predecessors to modernize and this provided the basis for its mass media industry to develop.
However, KMT's pursuit of economic progress and democratic ideals did not automatically mean that Taiwan's media could fulfill its role as the fourth estate of democracy, as a check on the government. The martial law era media was kept on a tight leash and the explicit prohibition from enquiring about then-President
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
, reinforced the culture of deference to KMT politicians even further.
It would not be surprising to observe mainstream media's close relations with the KMT regime, as the authoritarian nature of KMT determined media firms’ business practices. Taiwanese media was structured to transmit the official ideology decided by the KMT, such as the emphasized Han Chinese identity over Taiwanese identity, in response to political and national security concerns as claimed by the latter.
The official media's role in Taiwanese society was to communicate the government's decisions, mobilising people around its agenda and finding ways to work towards meeting the regime's objectives under the close supervision by the
Government Information Office
The Government Information Office, Executive Yuan (GIO; ) was a cabinet-level agency of the Executive Yuan of Taiwan (the Republic of China) in charge of promoting government policies and regulating domestic media.
History
In April 1947, the R ...
.
In an effort to curb dissent, KMT promulgated the Enforcement Rules for the Publications Act in 1952, which effectively banned the establishment of any more new magazines, newspapers and news agencies during
Taiwan's martial law era (1949–1987).
From 1952 to 1987, there were 31 newspapers in Taiwan, and by 1974, 44 news agencies. Yet this did not seem to prevent dissenting voices from seeking its space in the public sphere and in response, the KMT began employing alternative methods to limit the opposition movement from gaining traction. The authors of material which offends the KMT were subjected to reprisals, where the KMT and government officials repeatedly filed criminal libel and sedition suits against them, which often resulted in jail terms. This period of harsh suppression has also been remembered as the
White Terror
White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...
in Taiwanese history, where high-profile and educated dissidents such as Professor
Chen Wen-chen
Chen Wen-chen (, sometimes romanized as ''Chen Wen-cheng'') was a Taiwanese assistant professor of mathematics (specializing in probability and statistics) at Carnegie Mellon University who died on under mysterious circumstances. After the conc ...
began to disappear. Under such circumstances, alternative radio and television channels continued to thrive in Taiwan as a subversive underground movement to push for democratization, freedom and civil rights, even though they were barred from establishing themselves on official airways. The underground media's status provided a focus for organised and sustained opposition to the KMT-dominated state, where its magazines provided a voice for the politically marginalised Taiwanese since it was not covered by the press ban.
Specifically, the underground media brought the lives of KMT politicians under scrutiny and also brought opposition activists to the attention of their audience, familiarising the people with their names and platforms.
This convergence of opposition ideologies in the underground media scene also saw the beginning of an entwinement of interests between both the underground media operators and the main opposition grouping at that time,
Tangwai
The ''Tangwai'' movement, or simply ''Tangwai'' (), was a loosely knit political movement in Taiwan in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Although the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) had allowed contested elections for a small number of seats in the Legi ...
. In a time where cable television was banned, its operators have seen the partnership with opposition politicians as mutually beneficial, since cable television can be used as a powerful vehicle to promote the politicians’ goals and in return, the operators gain lobbyists for their business goals.
The then illegal opposition grouping Tangwai only took its current opposition liberal
Democratic Progressive Party
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...
(DPP) form in 1986 and even then it was done illegally. Media operators and politicians on both end of the political spectrum forged close relations during the martial law era, with whomever their vested interests lie in and this pattern persisted on to the situation today, albeit in the form of media outlets that are sympathetic to one of the two major parties.
The proximity between DPP members and cable television firms suggests that, a patron client relationship was sustained between them at that time. Furthermore, it has been revealed that 20 politicians from the DPP had investments in the operation of 35 pro-DPP cable television systems in 1994.
With a common goal and material support for the opposition campaign from the underground media, DPP pressed for greater liberalization of media and civil rights for the people. Yielding under popular pressure and United States, KMT lifted the 38 years of martial law imposed on Taiwan and the DPP became a legal political party in 1989, with cable television legalized with the enactment of the Cable Radio and Television Act.
KMT was not a passive party in this process of negotiation for media liberalization, although it seems slow in responding to the rapidly transforming electronic media environment and that the DPP had an upper hand in the underground media environment. During the review period for the draft cable law, one of the most controversial articles added by the legislature was the ban on political party ownership of cable systems that are critical of KMT.
This article could be argued as an effort made towards preserving equality and leveling the playing field for the cable television systems. However, KMT rejected the article and allowed political parties to finance cable systems. Before the enactment of the cable law, KMT has already set up Po-Hsin Multimedia in order to take a share of the cable market upon the enactment of the cable law.
Recent reform efforts have seen this gap filled up as the new Radio and Television Broadcasting Law required the government, the political parties and the military to give up their electronic media shareholding by 26 December 2005. Since the legalization of cable television, KMT has lost its power over the industry contrary to what its original expectation of sustaining influence over the medium.
With the rapid proliferation of print and broadcast media following liberalisation and the repeal of restrictions on transmitting and receiving cable television broadcasts, the market has taken over the state as the dominant influence over the mass media industry.
An official of President Chen Shui-bian's Cabinet said:”If the public dislikes certain TV channel or radio station which they think is manipulated by a certain party or individual they detest, they simply refuse to watch it or listen to it.”
The ongoing anti-monopoly dispute involving
Want Want
Want Want Holdings Limited (Want Want; ) is a food manufacturer from Taiwan. It is one of the largest rice cake and flavored drink makers in Taiwan. It engages in the manufacturing and trading of snack foods and beverages, divided into four bu ...
China Broadband's proposal to purchase China Network Systems seems to highlight the Taiwanese government's antipathy towards monopolies. If the merger is approved by the
National Communications Commission
The National Communications Commission (NCC; ) is an independent statutory agency of Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) responsible for regulating the development of the telecommunication and broadcasting industries, promoting compe ...
(NCC), the multibillion-dollar deal would allow the Want Want conglomerate to secure 23 percent of Taiwan's cable subscribers and approximately one-third of the overall media market.
The diversity of opinion in Taiwanese media is highly regarded by not only the journalist circle but also by the wider public who recognizes its importance in maintaining their society's pluralistic nature.
Cable television
Cable television is prevalent in Taiwan, as a result of cheap subscription rates (typically around
NT$
The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollars ...
550, or US$15 a month) and the paucity of free-to-air television, which comprises about 20 channels. Programming is mostly in
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
and
Taiwanese
Taiwanese may refer to:
* Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien
* Something from or related to Taiwan ( Formosa)
* Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan
* Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan
* Taiwanese people, ...
, with a few channels in
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
or
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. There are also programs in other foreign languages, mainly east Asian and south-east Asian languages.
Miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
, called
Taiwanese drama
Taiwanese drama (, also known as T.W. drama) refer to dramatic programming of television programming extended stories usually dramatizing relationships through the general range of ten to forty one-hour episodes. They are produced in Taiwan and hav ...
, are popular. There is a dedicated station for Taiwan's
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
minority as well as the arrival in 2005 of an
aboriginal channel. There are around 100 channels with most stations being dedicated to a particular genre; such as game shows, news, anime, movies, sports and documentaries. Almost all programs are in the original language with
traditional Chinese
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
subtitles.
The cable television system comprises around one hundred different channels, ranging from news, sport, variety, game, music, children's, foreign, movie and documentary channels.
The Taiwanese government is promoting digital signal television, provided through a
set-top box
A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...
. The analog signal of air television was turned off on 30 June 2012.
Radio
There are many stations across the AM and FM spectrum broadcasting a wide variety of programming. Talk-shows, popular music and classic songs are some of the most frequently heard subjects. Exclusively
Taiwanese-language stations have enjoyed a surge in popularity since the end of the martial law era and regulations restricting the use of languages other than
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
.
*
Broadcasting Corporation of China
The Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) is a broadcasting company in the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan). It was founded as the Central Broadcasting System in Nanjing in 1928.
History
The Central Broadcasting System is considere ...
- National and regional networks
*
Radio Taiwan International
Radio Taiwan International (RTI; ) is the English name and call sign of the Central Broadcasting System (CBS), national broadcaster and international radio service of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan. It is a government-owned sta ...
- National broadcaster; also beams services to mainland China and the rest of the world with programmes in various languages and Chinese dialects
*
International Community Radio Taipei - Taiwan's only national English-language station
*
Public Radio System
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
- Government-run; travel, weather, social information
*
Hit FM and
Kiss Radio Taiwan
KISS Radio in Taiwan plays the latest Chinese music and some English, Japanese and Korean top 40 songs. There ilive streamingfrom the station in Kaohsiung.
History
KISS Radio was launched on 14 February 1995.
Programs
* Kiss Morning - a news an ...
both play popular Chinese music
*
UFO Radio
UFO Radio (also known as UFO Network) is a radio station in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the P ...
- Second-largest station in Taiwan. Very popular. Plays all different kinds of music such as C-pop, J-pop, and American pop
*
Voice of Han
Voice of Han Broadcasting Station () also known as Voice of Han Chinese Broadcasting Station was founded in 1942 by the Ministry of National Defense. It is headquartered on Xinyi Road in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei, Taiwan.
History
1942, ...
- Military Radio Station
*
Fuxing Radio
Fu Hsing Broadcasting Station (FHBS; ) is a state-run radio station sponsored by Republic of China Armed Forces, located on the campus of Ming Chuan University in Taipei, Taiwan and is operated by the Ministry of National Defense. Its website is ...
- Military Radio Station
*
Taipei Broadcasting Station
Taipei Broadcasting Station or Radio Taipei (TBS; ) is a government owned radio station in the Republic of China. It has been in operation since 7 July 1961 under the direction of the Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Governmen ...
*
National Education Radio
Wikipedia's
Taiwan Radio Station Table (in Chinese)
Newspapers
![Chung Sheng Daily News shelf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Chung_Sheng_Daily_News_shelf.jpg)
Between 1952 and 1987 the number of papers in Taiwan was a constant 31 as there was a ban on opening new papers. Censorship during this period was heavy with the KMT regime having near total control over the papers. It wasn’t until liberalization in 1988 that independent newspapers were allowed to open, by the end of 1988 126 newspapers operated in Taiwan.
Most popular newspapers include:
*
China Times (''Zhongguo Shibao'')
*
Liberty Times
The ''Liberty Times'' is a national newspaper published in Taiwan. Founded by Lin Rong-San, it is published by the Liberty Times Group, which also publishes ''Taipei Times'', an English language newspaper . The newspaper was first published on 1 ...
(''Ziyou Shibao'')
*
United Daily News
''United Daily News'' (UDN; ) is a newspaper published in Taiwan. It is considered to support the pan-Blue Coalition in its editorials.
History
UDN was founded in 1951 by Wang Tiwu as a merger of three newspapers, ''Popular Daily'' (全民 ...
(''Lianhe Bao'')
Newspapers in English:
*
Taipei Times
The ''Taipei Times'' is the only printed daily English-language newspaper in Taiwan, and the third established there. Online competitors include the state-owned ''Focus Taiwan'' and ''Taiwan News''; ''The China Post'' was formerly a competit ...
(''Taibei Shibao'', )
*
Taiwan Today (''Jinri Taiwan'', )
*
The China Post (''Yingwen Zhongguo Youbao'', )
Other newspapers:
*
Commercial Times
Commercial Times () is a Chinese-language financial newspaper published in Taiwan and owned by the Want Want China Times Media Group. It is currently the biggest financial paper on the island. Because of its location in Taiwan, it is often a s ...
(''Gongshang Ribao'')
*
DigiTimes
DigiTimes () is a daily newspaper for semiconductor, electronics, computer and communications industries in Taiwan and the Greater China region. It was established in 1998. The company is based in Taipei, Taiwan and currently has a daily newsp ...
(''Dianzi Shibao'') - IT industry news
*
Economic Daily News (''Jingji Ribao'')
*
Mandarin Daily News
The ''Mandarin Daily News'' (; Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Gwoyeu Ryhbaw; Zhuyin ㄍㄨㄛˊ ㄩˇ ㄖˋ ㄅㄠˋ) is a traditional Chinese children's newspaper published daily in Taiwan. The main text of the articles is accompanied by Zhuyin
...
(''Guoyu Ribao'') - Children's newspaper, written with
Zhuyin accompanying the text
*
Taiwan Times
The ''Taiwan Times'' () is a newspaper based in Taiwan. The newspaper began publishing on 25 August 1971. Wang Hsing-ching
Wang Hsing-ching (; born 1946), who has a pseudonym of Nanfang Shuo (南方朔, Nánfāng Shuò), is a journalist, politi ...
(''Taiwan Shibao'')
*
Youth Daily News
Youth Daily News is a Taiwan daily newspaper. It was founded in 1973 by the government of Taiwan as ''Young Soldier''.
Notes
Sources
*
1973 establishments in Taiwan
Newspapers established in 1973
Newspapers published in Taiwan
Chinese ...
, youth civilians and military daily newspaper
Ceased publication:
*
Apple Daily (''Pingguo Ribao'')
*
China Times (Night) (''Zhongshi Wanbao'')
*
Independence Evening Post
The ''Independence Evening Post'' () was a Chinese-language newspaper founded by Wu San-lien, which was published in Taiwan from 1947 to 2001. For most of its existence, the publication was supportive of the tangwai movement and Democratic Progr ...
(''Zili Wanbao'')
*
Min Sheng Bao
''Min Sheng Bao'' () was a tabloid newspaper based in Taiwan, and was a sister publication of ''United Daily News
''United Daily News'' (UDN; ) is a newspaper published in Taiwan. It is considered to support the pan-Blue Coalition in its ed ...
(''Min Sheng Bao'')
*
Taiwan Daily
''Taiwan Daily'' () was a daily newspaper based in Taiwan that began circulation on 25 October 1964 and ended on 6 June 2006. It now exists as an online publication.
Features
The ''Taiwan Daily'' was usually published as broadsheet in full col ...
(''Taiwan Ribao'')
Available only in
digital format:
*
Central Daily News
The ''Central Daily News'' was the official newspaper of the Kuomintang and is one of the world's oldest Chinese-language newspapers, having been in circulation since 1928. The Kuomintang made the decision to temporarily cease publication of th ...
(''Zhongyang Ribao'')
* ''
Taiwan News'' (English newspaper)
* ''
The News Lens'' (Guānjiàn pínglùn wǎng, Chinese: 關鍵評論網)
Magazines and periodicals
In 1988, there were only about 3,400 magazine publishers in the country. Today, the number has been rapidly increasing to 4,827 (by August 2006). Magazines are various in different contents, including business, politics, entertainment, languages, lifestyle, technology, health, cooking, automobiles, women, education, traveling etc.
Internet
Taiwan is one of the most wired places in the world - broadband or cable modem access is relatively cheap and fast. In 2005 there were 13.8 million internet users and 2.8 million webhosts in Taiwan (for a total population of 22.9 million). A popular feature of even small towns are internet cafes (
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
: 網咖,
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: wǎngkā), which are open 24-hour and sell a variety of food and drink so that the mainly teenage online gamers who inhabit them do not have to stray too far from their monitors. Taiwan websites use the
.tw
.tw is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Taiwan. The domain name is based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code TW. The registry is maintained by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), a Taiwanese non-profit org ...
domain.
Taiwan has some online resources available in English:
China News Agency- Government owned news agency based in Taipei
Eat News- Economic and Political Media Limited owned news agency based in Taipei
Media environment
Due to its rapid change and quick development, the media in Taiwan has been in an acrimoniously competitive environment. Covering a market of 23 million people, the country has 8 twenty-four-hour news stations (compared to 3 in the US, 3 in the UK, and 3 in Japan), approximately 200 radio stations, about 2,500 newspaper publishers, and more than 4,000 magazine publishers; moreover, Taiwan also has the highest density of
Satellite News Gathering (SNG) trucks in the world: 23 million people are served by 82 trucks, compared to 120 million/71 in Japan, 7 million/1 in Hong Kong, 48 million/40 in Korea, and 1 billion/300 in India. However, in order to earn a higher
Nielsen rating in such a competitive market, sometimes the shows tend to include sexual and violent contents. Sensational headlines are often picked up.
See also
*
Culture of Taiwan
The culture of Taiwan is a blend of Confucian Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese cultures. Despite the overwhelming traditional Chinese influence, Japanese culture has influenced Taiwanese culture as well. The common socio-political experience in ...
*
Taiwanese drama
Taiwanese drama (, also known as T.W. drama) refer to dramatic programming of television programming extended stories usually dramatizing relationships through the general range of ten to forty one-hour episodes. They are produced in Taiwan and hav ...
*
Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation (PTS)
*
Television in Taiwan
Television channels in the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan.
Digital television
Digital television launched terrestrially throughout Taiwan on 1 July 2004, using the DVB-T system. After years of simulcasting, Taiwan replaced analogue ...
*
Censorship in Taiwan
*
Press Freedom Index
References
Citations
Sources
BBC Country Profile: TaiwanCIA - The World Factbook: Taiwan* Ma, Ringo (2003). Status of media in Taiwan. In ''Encyclopedia of international media and communications'' (Vol. 4, pp. 329–339). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Media Of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...