Taiwan media shake-up gets its wires crossed
The axing of the information service agency has left non-local media dependent on poor service from the ministries that have taken over
Taiwan's Government Information Office (GIO), formerly the island's top publicity organ, faded into history nine months ago along with its widely praised media services function, which the diplomatically isolated island used to raise its profile.
After operating for 65 years, the GIO was abolished on May 20, the day Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou began his second four-year term. It was axed as part of a restructuring project aimed at streamlining government departments, reducing duplication and saving money. Its three major functions were handed over to other government departments, with international publicity matters going to the foreign ministry, domestic publicity issues going to the cabinet's information department, and responsibility for its film and publications business going to the culture ministry.
But since the GIO was closed, those bodies have struggled to take care of some of its functions, with media services for non-local news outlets inferior to those provided by the GIO.
"Cutting the GIO only makes things even worse - Chaos No 1: foreign media outlets now become orphans," a headline in the Taipei-based United Evening News read on November 17. The article listed the growing complaints by non-local journalists about inadequate liaison from the foreign ministry's international information department.
Cutting the GIO only makes things even worse - Chaos No 1: foreign media outlets now become orphans
One example it quoted was a visit to Pengjia Islet, near the disputed Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, on September 7. Ma had hoped the trip would draw international attention to Taiwan's sovereignty claim to the Diaoyus, offer a way to ease tensions in the region, and lead to joint exploration for oil and fishery resources - something he called the East China Sea Peace Initiative. Tensions between Japan and the mainland, which also claim the Diaoyus, have been on the rise.
The trip would have brought good international publicity for Taiwan were it not for the lack of liaison between the foreign ministry and non-local media. Because of the short notice, journalists from many non-local media outlets stationed in Taiwan were unable to make it to the trip, the paper reported.