Press ethics seen from Taiwan

Thoughts to Ponder 2

From editorsweblog http://www.editorsweblog.org/2004/08/press_ethics_se.html


"What is interesting in the following Taipeh Times' article is that it is written in Asia. Cheng Jim-ming is a professor in the Graduate Institute of Journalism at Chinese Culture University and his paper could be written by some member of the Press Complaint Commission in UK: same values, same definition of journalism... Taking examples in Western and Asian media, he thinks that "since news media are influential, they may have a negative impact if they are operated by those without social responsibility... Recently, many of the media's self-proclaimed "exclusive" stories have caused the public to doubt the media. Some television stations so frequently claim that their reports are "exclusive, that we're unsure whether to laugh or cry... An article published in The Journalist recently described such exclusive reports as "a poison to professionalism." This description was absolutely right. The author wrote, "The local electronic media's `Taiwanese-style' scoops include almost everything ... This is proof of the electronic media's decline"... If we simply sacrifice ethics and restrictions due to pressure, our past efforts to improve news professionalism could be in vain." Article's conclusion: "The whole society will pay a price if our media are not in the hands of professionals."