Taiwan scores own goal in fight to rein in runaway media

A seminal moment in Taiwan's public relations campaign to explain its TV licensing policy came when the head of the Government Information Office (GIO) met with foreign reporters last week. Pasuya Yao had just spent an hour explaining in detail why his office rejected seven licensees, and how the decision was not political but in fact totally fair and professional.

Then came a Q&A session, with the first question being from a French journalist who asked how Taiwan's rabid TV stations could get away with entering hospitals to get footage, and surrounding victims in mourning. Where's the right to privacy? the reporter asked.

His hands were tied, was the minister's response. While he personally believed that privacy was a big concern, there was nothing the GIO could do about it, he said, before revealing his own experiences.

In one case, the mother of a famous model called his mobile phone to request his help. The woman's daughter had been transferred to a Taiwan hospital after falling off a horse on the mainland the week before, and the paparazzi and TV crews were entering the hospital wards to get shots.

The second plea for help came from a kidnap victim who'd just been released by his captors unharmed, but was now holed up in his home with swarms of media crews outside determined to get footage of him. The victim called Mr Yao's mobile phone in the hope he could do something, but empathetic though he was, the minister could do nothing.

While he agreed that the right to privacy of both persons had been invaded, by law the media had done nothing illegal, and even if they had, the minister hadn't the power to do anything.