NCC Revocation of CtiTV News License Confirms Previous Rumors, Sounds Death Bell for Free Speech
United Daily News, November 18, 2020
The National Communications Commission (NCC) in Taiwan ruled against the license renewal of the Chung Tien Television (CtiTV) News, and the outcome indeed confirmed the rumors of the leaked confidential documents from the Presidential Office and also sounded the death knell for Taiwan's freedom of speech. The overwhelming power of the state machinery is suppressing and stifling the people's freedom of speech, causing democracy to regress rapidly. The authoritarianism of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is even more frightening than what was under the former martial law rule.
Following Transitional Justice, NCC Set up CtiTV for Political Trial
President Tsai Ing-wen’s second term garnered a whopping 8.17 million votes, giving her the greatest power. However, Tsai’s large government did not work for the wellbeing of the people, instead it abused power and oppressed opponents. Even independent agencies have become affiliate organizations of the DPP. In last election year, the Transitional Justice Commission reduced itself to a political stooge, which wanted to frame the rival candidates. Likewise, the NCC set up a kangaroo court to try CtiTV, drawing a red line for press freedom.
President Tsai Promised to Maintain Taiwanese Freedom and Democracy
President Tsai solemnly made three major declarations during her re-election campaign: "Democracy is the core value we carefully guard. We will never regard different political propositions as treason." "Even with different political positions, we can still unite as one country, rather than unite under one voice" and "To safeguard the free and democratic lifestyle of Taiwan people." The people trust her and handed over power to her.
State-Level Cyber-Army
However, as President Tsai continued to be in charge, she has become more aggravated by politics. She and her party teammates regard opponents as enemies and wish to get rid of them. They enacted five laws in relation to national security, tagged labels on and smeared the opposition party as being pro-China, and gagged the vocal retired generals. In order to suppress the opposition party, the Tsai administration set up the “Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee” to hunt down the opposition party and liquidate its assets. The DPP legislators even proposed to modify the party emblem of the opposition party. In the face of any challenges and criticisms from the opposition party, the Tsai administration has “central kitchen” to cook up graphics cards or rebuttal components, which are handed over to the flanking cyber army to launch attacks. The opposition legislators will face a full-scale siege by the cyber army as long as they question the government. Everyone fears the cyber army and wonders how many net warriors are there.
NCC Members Excessively Suspected News About Opposition Candidate, Constituting Content Censorship
Now the Tsai administration has even become a backstage manipulator of the media through coercion in license renewal to censor the media and to control speech. NCC member Lin Lih-yun, who had earlier participated in the anti-Want Want China media group movement, questioned why CtiTV News covered the rival presidential candidate meticulously, even reporting that he wore socks when sleeping at night, which they claimed had nothing to do with public welfare. It begs the question: according to this logic, what is the relationship between the various TV stations reporting the legislator Gao Jia-yu’s singing and the public welfare? The answer is simple: people love gossip. Why can't TV stations broadcast it? Questions raised by NCC members have openly veered into censorship of news content.
Furthermore, if CtiTV News has fake news, the NCC should of course impose penalties. Political talk show programs fall in the category of freedom of speech. Censoring the content of political talk show programs and the political positions of guests is in fact news censorship by the public power to suppress freedom of speech.
Sword Wielded Against Opposition Media But Double-Standard for Friendly Media
The NCC's broad knife is only directed at media that question the DPP, but it applies double standards for the media friendly to the DPP camp. It certainly does not examine all media with the same standard, not to mention the DPP factional competition involved behind the cable TV channels. The CtiTV license renewal case revealed the conspiracy of one of the DPP factions’ involvement, the DPP factions scrambling to the turf war in media market to control speech in the media, the faction leader’s control of the cable TV, and faction troops having invaded the public media in a big way. The DPP, which used to chant "Party, government and military should withdraw from the media," is now fully involved in the media.
Increased Police Investigation of False Information Produces Chilling Effect
Even more frightening is that the Tsai administration used the state machinery to suppress the people's freedom of speech. Facing people's criticism and questioning of its policy, President Tsai asked the police to make every effort to investigate false information and invoke the Social Order Maintenance Act to suppress speech, such that people bare trapped to fear of the reatoring authoritarianism of the police state. The DPP government ruthlessly deals with false information, and the police have become their thugs to intimidate the people and suppress freedom of speech. Over this year, there has been a huge increase in cases of investigation and prosecution of false information by the police. Although the court has repeatedly advised the government against "firing at the shadows", the Tsai administration is still unfazed. Police investigations have made the people fearful, and the chilling effect spreads across the board.
Double Standards Behind Ting Yi-ming Beef Noodle Incident
The police stated that they have no discretion, as long as someone files a report, it must be transferred to the prosecution. However, when the Executive Yuan Spokesman Ting Yi-ming openly alleged a specific beef noodle shop of using ractopamine-laced beef, the small shop could not bear the damage of its reputation and came forward to clarify that false allegation, and the government spokesperson was hence reported to have publicly released false information. The Criminal Investigation Bureau did not dare to investigate, but argued that Ting already clarified it, so it did not constitute a crime of disseminating false information and refuse to accept people’s report.
Mindful of the political consequences, the police directly determined that Ting’s false allegation did not constitute a crime, so they refused to accept the public's report. Is this not double standard? As the government is fast backsliding from democracy, and the police naturally go with it—shielding high officials and bullying the weak ordinary people.
How Can DPP Veterans Bear to See the Status Quo
Police investigation, tagging pro-China labels, shutting down the media, rejecting CtiTV News license renewal, this is just a prelude to accelerated tightening of freedom of speech by the Tsai administration. The people's freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution is being curtailed by the DPP one by one. The DPP of the old days that established itself as a defender of freedom of speech has now turned into an authoritarian that suppresses democracy. The old democrats of the DPP are bound to shake their heads seeing the status quo.