Chairman Chiang’s Speech Transcript
Good morning everyone! Today is International Human Rights Day. Yet ironically, today is also the day one of Taiwan’s television news channels is to be shut down by the DPP. This shutdown defiles Taiwan’s intensely proud culture of freedom and democracy. As such, we have convened this international press conference so that the international community can understand the gravity of the situation. The National Communications Commission’s (NCC) repeal of the Chung Tien (CTi) News Channel’s license has already severely subverted freedom of press on Taiwan. We sincerely hope that the international community will take this situation seriously: the people of Taiwan are currently confronted with the possibility that free expression will be met with persecution. We also sincerely hope that the international community will join us to defend the human rights of free press and free speech on Taiwan.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 19 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.” We wholeheartedly agree. We believe that free speech and free press are fundamental, universal human rights. On the other hand, the Tsai administration has abused executive power to stifle opposing viewpoints. This abuse will unequivocally cast a dark shadow on Taiwan’s international image of human rights champion.
If a ruler, for the sake of personal preference, or for the sake of evading media criticism and oversight, wantonly abuses the state apparatus to intervene in the personnel appointments of an independent organization such as the NCC, or worse, demands that this independent organization cooperate in shutting down a news channel, then this is pseudo independence. In reality, this organization becomes the equivalent of a secret police. The NCC’s failure to be properly independent and objective not only undermines press freedom, but worse, its failure defiles the very democracy and freedom enshrined in our constitution, and causes our nation to trend towards dictatorship.
The media serves to oversee the government. The media should not serve as the government’s mouthpiece or makeup artist. If a ruler abuses the nation’s resources to meddle with the operations of the media and to smother opposing viewpoints in society, then the ruler is depriving the people of their right to express themselves. Does this sound like democracy? Or does it sound more like dictatorship? Once freedom of press perishes, the next to suffer will be freedom of speech and freedom of thought. Thus, we must loudly oppose and fiercely resist this sort of government. Silence will only bring us closer to dictatorship.
Taiwanese society has called the repeal of CTi News Channel’s license into question because the Tsai Ing-wen administration’s decision to repeal was based solely on political considerations. This May, secret documents leaked from the Presidential Palace clearly revealed that Executive Yuan Cabinet Minister Huang Chi-da 黃致達 stated, “Two newly appointed NCC commissioners are pro-DPP, so they can cooperate with us to deal with CTi.” Although the presidential palace denied the contents of these documents, it is very obvious that CTi News Channel’s license repeal was due to a scheme prepared by the authorities.
Taiwan’s deep respect for a free news reporting environment was hard won. Furthermore, media oversight of the government has helped Taiwan’s democracy be open and transparent. However, the CTi shutdown has caused all levels of Taiwanese society to feel that the authorities, for the sake of terminating opposing voices, have suppressed freedom of press. This suppression has restricted the expression of diverse ideas on Taiwan. As our news environment and viewpoints trend towards uniformity, Taiwan’s democracy will become a hollow shell of its former self.
I once again call upon the international community to pay close attention to this issue of Taiwan’s current rulers shutting down a television news channel, and thus severely subverting Taiwan’s long guaranteed free expression of opinions and freedom of press. The Tsai administration, by means of executive force, has meddled with the position of the media. This meddling will reduce the diversity of voices on Taiwan, and will unequivocally have an adverse effect on the development of Taiwan’s democracy.
