The DPP Shows its True Colors in Another Attempt to "Block the Blue Camp"

 The DPP Shows its True Colors in Another Attempt to "Block the Blue Camp"

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

April 20, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

DPP legislator Yeh Yi-jin introduced a resolution asking the National Communications Council (NCC) to lay the groundwork for amending pertinent legislation so that in the future media stockholders identified as being associated with political parties, government, and the military who refuse to divest their stocks should be penalized. Yeh Yi-jin’s resolution seems to be superfluous, in fact, the NCC has long been working on amending the pertinent legislation, seeking to ease the restrictions on the holding of media stocks by political parties, government, and the military from zero to five percent, which is more generous than Yeh’s advocacy. Decades ago, the DPP used the “party-government-military clause” as a divine weapon to block the Blue camp, but now it feels extremely inconvenient by the “blocking” when it is in control of the government, thus, we are afraid, the only way out is easing the restrictions.

Simply put, at the time the DPP deployed barrier upon barrier to “block the Blue camp,” but because it proceeded with crudeness and violence, while not considering properly, so that the spirit and objective of the pertinent legislation contradicted each other, becoming difficult to apply, and in actual practice met with obstacles everywhere. At the same time, the restrictions were so stringent that now they have become a stumbling block hampering the development of television and even new Internet media, while the NCC ended up being constricted. Therefore, the NCC wants to amend the law, easing the clause on the entry into the media by party, government, and the military. This came about not because the DPP overnight became magnanimous, but rather aiming to find a way out for itself now being mired in the dilemma of a “dragnet of the law.”

Targeting the anachronism of the three laws on broadcasting and television, the NCC is now preparing to amend the legislation. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture is also advocating revision of the "Public Media Act," attempting to group such media outlets as the Chinese Television Service, Public Television Service, Central News Agency, and the Central Broadcasting Station into a single "Greater Public Broadcasting Conglomerate." In actuality, in these "public" mass communications and media outlets, personnel and budget have already been in the grasp and control of the government early on. Their histories, functions, goals, and mode of operations had huge differences originally; what are the grounds to group them together into one big conglomerate? The only question came from the mentality that the DPP was fearful that social control is not tight enough. Centralizing these diversified, pluralistic organizations and handing them over to its own trusted confidantes to manage, it would of course be much more convenient for the government to control public opinion. But let’s ask, will this produce a positive effect on the pluralistic public opinion, the openness of information, and the democratic image of the country?

The receding of the defense line for “withdrawing the party, government, and military forces from the media” manifests the DPP has shown its true colors in “blocking the Blue camp.” If the Greater Public Broadcasting Conglomerate allows various "political figures" to turn into media figures, that would be an even greater irony.

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