Gov’t Is the Least Qualified to Determine What News Is True or Fake

 Gov’t Is the Least Qualified to Determine What News Is True or Fake

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 18, 2018
 Translation of an Excerpt

After the DPP’s stunning defeat in the nine-in-one local elections, it actively plans to revise legislation in order to severely penalize fake news, attempting to create a chilling effect, even the Foreign Ministry has joined the melee. It looks like this government does not believe that developing the economy and improving people's livelihood are the important issues at the present time, all day long thinking about electoral operations, and apparently not yet awakened from the baptism of vox populi, believing that the disastrous electoral defeat was the result of fake news, and trying to clamp down everywhere the freedom of speech and freedom of the press; this is truly incredible.

The Cabinet, in its regular meeting on the 13^th, adopted seven provisions in draft amendment bills to pertinent laws, strictly controlling personal and online platforms, and also hiking the penalty for fake news to life in prison. Although the draft bill, on the surface, states that only if the fake news leads to death may the culprit be sentenced to life imprisonment, but who is to guarantee that the government will not trump up charges? Once the public harbors fear, producing a chilling effect, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, on which Taiwan has prided itself in the past, will be harmed and eroded.

In fact, the least qualified to determine what information and news are true or false is precisely the government. The government controls massive resources accumulated through taxes paid by the entire public, and many government agencies use public funds to maintain press and PR spokespersons; facing the information and opinions questioned by the public, there is no way to provide correct information winning the people’s trust, but only think of, in a reverse manner, restricting citizens’ freedom of speech and freedom of the press, it is veritably confirming the government’s incompetence.

When the government plans to amend the law in order to restrict freedom of speech, while talking about "100% freedom of speech," isn’t this fake news? Experiences tell us that the government is not qualified to determine what is true news or false news, otherwise it will use it to suppress information unfavorable to itself.

Attachment : none