MCLC: mainland journalists face oppression in Taiwan

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: mainland journalist face oppression in Taiwan
***********************************************************

Source: Asia Times (3/9/12):
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NC09Ad01.html

Mainland journalists face oppression in Taiwan
By Jens Kastner 

TAIPEI - In somewhat of an odd twist, reporters from autocratic mainland
China grumble that democratic Taiwan gives them a hard time carrying out
their trade. Rigid regulations imposed on them should be scrapped for the
sake of a free flow of news across the Taiwan Strait, they say. But the
Taiwanese authorities feel the complaints would be better addressed not to
their letterbox but elsewhere.

Despite the spectacular cross-strait rapprochement of late, Beijing and
Taipei have yet to give the nod for media outlets to set up offices on
each other's soil. So far Taiwan allows 10 mainland outlets to deploy five
reporters each, but the rules say the journalists may be active on the
island in a private capacity only.

Taiwan grants single-entry work permits spanning three months, which can
be extended for another three months, but once this second period is over,
the journalists have to reapply on the mainland. Because that is a process
taking weeks rather than days, instead of waiting for their employees'
visa issues to be sorted out, mainland news organizations often simply opt
for replacing one journalist with another.

As the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) under Beijing's State Council or
cabinet, which is responsible for cross-strait policies including media
exchanges, recently urged Taipei to give green light for the establishment
of permanent press offices as soon as possible, mainland reporters
simultaneously aired their grievances with the Taiwanese press. Besides
the obvious difficulties in maintaining hard-earned ties with valuable
sources, they say the major victim of the hectic come and go is reasonably
housing. Because Taiwanese rental contracts for apartments normally cover
at least a year, the mainland journalists are forced to stay in hotels.
The mainland reporters Asia Times Online has come across in Taipei stayed
in cheap no-tell ones in the city's sleazier corners because of tight
budgets. 

It is not as if all mainland reporters active in Taiwan work for media
that are as prominently affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
as the Xinhua news agency or People's Daily. After a series of opening
measures for cross-strait tourism that Taipei has been implementing since
2008, by now about 100,000 mainland tourists travel to the island per
month, creating a rapidly growing demand for media productions that cater
to the sector, such as TV travel shows, brochures and guidebooks. Tourism
facilities scattered in every corner of the island have to be filmed,
photographed and written about, which is obviously a time-consuming
undertaking. 

But mainland journalists who do cover more sensitive political issues can
also claim to have good reasons to roam the island freely. Surrounding
Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections in mid-January, they
produced an unprecedented amount of information about the Taiwanese
democratic system, which was then with surprising openness printed and
aired all over the mainland. In effect for the first time in mainland
China, democracy was portrayed as a viable option.

Taiwan grants reporters from places other than the mainland one-year
multi-entry visas that they can extend indefinitely without leaving the
island. International media organizations are welcomed with open arms, but
while it is at first glance hard to see why Taipei treats journalists from
across the strait so differently, the government says it has its reasons.

"China, rather than Taiwan, is to blame for creating the obstacles that
have hindered press exchanges across the strait," said Hua Shih-chieh, an
official with Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which is Taiwan's
counterpart to the TAO, as quoted by the local press. "China's mass-media
environment [with its Internet censorship and lack of press freedom ] is
the core hindrance blocking cross-strait press exchanges."

And MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun made clear that change was not on the
horizon. Liu ruled out that the next round of high-level negotiations
between Taipei and Beijing to be held later this year would see
discussions on the issue.

Reporters Without Borders' 2011-12 Press Freedom Index puts Taiwan in 45th
place and mainland China in 174th among 179 jurisdictions. Journalists and
editorial boards active on the mainland painstakingly avoid crossing the
CCP's invisible red lines mainly by carrying out self-censorship.

There's not much to indicate that Beijing has a much more liberal attitude
concerning journalistic cross-strait exchanges. The very first glimpse at
the TAO's guide for Taiwanese reporters active on the mainland published
on its official website provides a clue of what Mother China expects from
cross-strait journalism. "These measures are formulated to ... promote the
peaceful reunification of the motherland," Paragraph 1 reads.

Political scientists in Taipei warn that Taiwan should be wary. According
to Tsai Chia-hung of National Chengchi University, Taiwan just has to look
at the experiences of Hong Kong to see the dangers.

"They [mainland journalists] may become an agency of the Chinese
government. If they stay in Taiwan long enough to get familiar with
politicians and businesspeople, that may hurt [Taiwanese] national
security," Tsai said.

Lai I-chung, a member of the research body Taiwan Thinktank, shed more
light on why it's Beijing's bureaucracy that deserves the blame, not
Taipei's. 

"The three-month period per stay is for the principle of reciprocity
because they also do the same thing to Taiwanese reporters stationed
there," Lai said. 

He added that for his taste, mainland reporters had been wailing a bit too
much, as in practice they can get visa extensions on and on and on.
Mainland journalists Asia Times Online talked to in private agreed that
reporters with Xinhua and People's Daily managed this with ease.

"But the problem is with [the People's Republic of] China," Lai said. "The
procedure for them to get permission from the PRC is more cumbersome than
dealing with the Taiwanese authorities."

It's the TAO that decides who is allowed to report from Taiwan, and
applications by journalists and editors to visit the island are sometimes
rejected. In practice, mainland journalists still have the option to enter
Taiwan via Hong Kong or a third country, but because in Taiwan agents on
Beijing's behalf reportedly monitor the media scene as well as foundations
that invite mainland journalists, such bypassing of TAO regulations could
bring repercussions back home.

The TAO tends to justify the turning down of applicants with the
requirements imposed by its quota system, however.

Lai furthermore emphasized that the assertion often made by Beijing that
its press contributes to advancing cross-strait understanding had to be
taken with a very large pinch of salt.

"Chinese media sometimes do exactly the opposite," he said. "Being friends
with those reporters from China is one thing; what's behind the media
organizations they work for is quite another story."

Jens Kastner is a Taipei-based journalist.

(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd.)