WTO ( ) / monthly/monthly.htm ISSN 1609-8765
vs. Even the Dictator Didn t Do It Joe HUNG ( )
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WTO 1992 2002 19.7% 13.2% 33.0% 10.9% 44.7% 15.6% 11.9% 23.7% 10.0% 35.9% 29.9% 20.0% 33.1% 17.7% 40.8% 20.6% 14.1% 31.6% 12.0% 41.7%
90 p 89 r (%) 23,012 28,833-20.2 12,289 14,832-17.1 10,723 14,001-23.4 1,567 831 88.5 p r
90 p 89 r (%) 988 1,087-9.1 (%) 4.3 3.8 (0.5) 303 328-7.5 (%) 2.5 2.2 (0.3) 685 759-9.7 (%) 6.4 5.4 (1.0) -382-431 -11.4
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Even the Dictator Didn t Do It Joe HUNG Adviser, National Security Division, National Policy Foundation Freedom of the press was suppressed in Taiwan while Chiang Kai-shek was ruling the island as president of the Republic of China. Some journalists were executed and many others thrown into prison. Many more were summoned to the Taiwan Garrison Command for questioning sessions, which might last a couple of days. All of them, however, got into trouble after their news reports which displeased the authorities had been published. It was government censorship after publication. Police investigators, under orders of a public prosecutor, raided Next Magazine on March 20. The raid was aimed at preventing publication of reports detailing a slush fund allegedly approved by former President Lee Teng-hui for the National Security Bureau, the country s top intelligence agency. Some 160,000 copies of the weekly s No. 43 issue, in which the reports that might embarrass the government appeared, were seized. The home of a reporter was searched. What makes Wednesday s event different from all the encroachments on freedom of the press during Chiang s dictatorial rule is government censorship before publication. The raid was launched one day before the journal was scheduled to hit the newsstands. Freedom of the press is the right to publish facts, ideas, and opinions without interference from the government or from private groups. This right applies to all the media newspapers, magazines, books, radio and television. Most democratic governments limit freedom of the press in time of war. Chiang might have justified his encroachment on freedom of the press by claiming that his Republic of China was technically at war with the People s Republic of China. Taipei can no longer make that
claim after President Lee proclaimed an end to the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of Communist Rebellion in 1991. The Lee proclamation, so far as Taiwan is concerned, terminated the Chinese civil war that broke out immediately at the end of World War II. And Taiwan has a democratic government. On the other hand, dictators President Chiang was one of them believe they alone hold the truth and opposition to them endangers their countries. The Constitution of the Republic of China guarantees freedom of speech, teaching, writing and publication. Taiwan has no laws explicitly prohibiting government censorship. In the United States, however, the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the American government from censorship before publication. That constitutional guarantee led the U. S. Supreme Court to block the Justice Department s attempt in 1972 to stop The New York Times and The Washington Post from publishing a secret study of the Vietnam War. The Attorney General claimed that publication of the so-called Pentagon Papers could harm national security. The Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional guarantee of a free press overrode other considerations and allowed publication of the Pentagon Papers. Taiwan has attained a reputation for raucous press freedom since the end of martial law in 1987, one year before President Lee took over from Chiang Ching-kuo after the latter s death. Chiang Ching-kuo, president of the Republic of China from 1978 to 1988, was a son of Chiang Kai-shek. The raid on Next Magazine was a move that even Chiang Kai-shek s government did not dare to make while Taiwan was still under his dictatorial rule. Even the Dictator Didn t Do It
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