Yesterday (Dec. 10th) was International Human Rights Day, yet one of Taiwan’s television news channels was shut down by the ruling party today (Dec. 11th), defiling Taiwan’s intensely proud culture of freedom and democracy. In response, the Kuomintang (KMT) convened a “Safeguard Press Freedom, Hold Government Accountable” international press conference this morning, with Chairman Johnny Chiang personally hosting and former president Ma Ying-jeou, former National Communications Commission Vice Chairperson Liou Tzong-der, and former Central News Agency Vice President Lu Zhi-xiang in attendance. The KMT hopes that by means of international media reporting, the significance behind the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) refusal to grant the Chung Tien (CTi TV) News Channel license renewal will be conveyed to the international community. Thus, with Taiwan’s press freedom severely subverted, the KMT hopes that the international community will take this seriously: the Taiwanese people are currently confronted with the mindset that freedom of expression may be persecuted. Furthermore, we must safeguard Taiwan’s freedom of press, freedom of speech, and other human rights values together.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The KMT believes that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are fundamental and universal human rights; yet the Tsai administration, by means of executive schemes, has constrained these freedoms. This constraint has unequivocally done consequential harm to Taiwan’s international image as human rights champion.

Chairman Chiang stated that if a ruler, based on personal preference or due to news media criticism holding the ruler accountable, exploits the state apparatus to influence the personnel appointments of an independent organization, or demands that this independent organization cooperate with the government and shut down news channels, then this is pseudo independence. In reality, this is equivalent to a secret police organization. When this independent organization undermines the very obligations that it is responsible for, it not only harms freedom of the press, but it also undermines the democracy and freedom enshrined in our constitution and causes our nation to trend towards dictatorship.

“One of the responsibilities of the media is to oversee the government, not to serve as the government’s mouthpiece or visagiste.” Chairman Chiang added that, if a ruler who controls the state apparatus exploits the nation’s resources to meddle with news media, stifle opposing voices, forbid society from having opposing viewpoints, and in this way deprive the people of the right to express themselves: is this a democracy or a dictatorship? Chairman Chiang believes that once freedom of the press perishes, the next to fade away will be freedom of speech and freedom of thought. Thus, we must loudly oppose and fiercely resist this exploitation because silence will cause us to draw closer and closer to dictatorship.

Taiwanese society has called the Tsai administration into question because the administration’s refusal to renew the CTi Television Channel’s license was based on solely political considerations. This questioning includes the breaking news story of Presidential Palace secret documents from this May: these documents revealed that an Executive Yuan cabinet minister directly stated: amongst the three newly appointed NCC commissioners, two pro-DPP commissioners have stated that they “can cooperate to deal with CTi.” Although the presidential palace denied the contents of these secret documents, if the circumstances surrounding the refusal of the CTi News Channel’s license renewal are compared with the contents of these secret documents, it becomes obvious that the CTi News Channel’s inability to renew its license was unequivocally due not to a problem of unprofessional interior management, but was instead due to a program prepared long ago by the authorities.

The KMT believes that Taiwan went through a long process of struggle before achieving an environment of free news reporting, and that the reason Taiwan’s democracy could develop to become even more open and transparent was because the media is able to hold the government accountable. However, the course of events leading to revocation of the CTi News Channel license has caused all levels of society to feel that the authorities, for the sake of eliminating opposing voices, have suppressed freedom of the press, bringing about a restriction on the expression of diverse ideas on Taiwan. As the views regarding press and discourse gravitate towards unitarization, Taiwan’s democracy will become a hollow shell of its former self.

The KMT calls upon the international community to be heedful of Taiwan’s current rulers shutting down a television news channel, and the harm this shutdown has done to Taiwan’s long guaranteed free expression of opinions and freedom of the press. The Tsai administration, by means of executive force, has meddled with the standpoints of the news media, which will cause Taiwanese society to lose its diversity of voices. This will unequivocally have an adverse effect on the quotidian development of Taiwan’s democracy.