"There Is Absolute Media Freedom In Taiwan"

The Director of Information at the Taiwanese Government Information Office, which is the mouth piece of the Taiwanese government, has said that there is complete press freedom in Taiwan.

Director David Cheng was addressing the participants of the 2009 Taiwan Culture and Study Tour on Tuesday August 4th at the conference hall of his Ministry in Taipei.

According to him, Taiwan is quite unique as far as press freedom is concerned. "Taiwanese media criticised even the President almost on a daily basis. This is democracy, and is also good for society," he stated.

He said when they criticize the government sometimes there exist a bit of truth and by so doing it encourages the government to be careful in their dealings.

He said that media criticisms also help in regulating government officials.

He stated that his office is the public relations armed of the Taiwanese government, and thus publicise its policies and achievements.

According to him, his office used to control the media, but noted that this does not exist now.

He used the occasion to stress that his government is now focused on participating in various specialised agencies of the United Nations and not the UN main body. He said negotiating with China as regards to autonomy is a misplaced priority at the moment.

"It's ridiculous to ignore China when 40%of our export trade goes to China," he stressed.

He concluded his presentation by saying that Taiwan needs more space at the international arena.

Meanwhile, according to the Information Department sources, there are 7707 Newspapers and magazines in Taiwan, with 178 radio stations, 67 television stations and companies, with 180 satellite broadcasting programme providers, as well as 75 foreign media with correspondents in Taiwan, just to name but a few. 

Later in the day, participants also visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where they were hosted to a dinner