Dear Editor,
On reading the 7 July United Daily News article by Kung Chi on the "Hong-Kong-ization of Taiwan's media," reprinted in the Potpourri section of your September overseas edition, I have a number of comments.
The founding of Apple Daily in 1995 gave impetus to a trend among Hong Kong's Chinese-language newspapers toward lowbrow content and a preponderance of pictures over text (and even inventing news). Today, the three largest-selling newspapers in Hong Kong are all of this type. The remaining Chinese-language papers hold less than 30% of the market. The standard of Chinese-language newspapers in Taiwan is indeed higher than in Hong Kong, not to mention mainland China. However, in Taiwan too some magazines often publish exaggerated and sensationalist reports.
I think the ethical and professional standards of TV stations in Hong Kong are still very high, and probably unmatched anywhere else in the Chinese world. Therefore Kung's claim that Taiwanese TV stations are gradually going the way of those in Hong Kong is unfair to Hong Kong's TV stations. In recent years, news programs on most of Taiwan's TV stations have been full of salacious gossip and often show disturbing images. Clearly, intense competition has not raised the standards of TV in Taiwan, but has caused them to sink to new depths.
Hong Kong has two free-to-air TV stations and one cable TV station. The publicly owned Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) also has a TV division, and the three broadcasters are required to allocate time for RTHK-made programs. Hong Kong's three TV stations all display a high degree of self-discipline. They adhere to professional rules and ethics, and also abide by the government's relevant legislation regarding professional standards in news reporting.
Although RTHK is state run it is not a government mouthpiece. The TV programs it produces, particularly current affairs programs and programs on particular topics, are solid in their content and well made. In fact the three TV stations also produce many news and comment programs of a similar high level of quality. Some combine social topics with entertainment, giving viewers food for thought. In Taiwan, despite the large number of journalism programs in colleges and the presence of many US-trained PhDs in the industry, regrettably we do not see this level of achievement.
Hong Kong's three biggest selling newspapers, and other publications owned by the same companies, habitually indulge in paparazzi-style reporting and invasion of privacy, and report social and crime news with more than an "equal emphasis" on pictures over text, for instance by publishing very graphic pictures of suicides or car accident victims. This has aroused aversion in many people, so last year the Hong Kong Press Council was formed, composed of professionals and independent people, to censure confirmed cases of invasion of privacy. But it has no powers of enforcement. Although the council's founding prompted much opposition and skepticism in media circles, and to date it does not seem to have had much effect, at least it is a step in the direction of protecting the public and raising media standards.
I hope that professionals in all branches of the media in both Taiwan and Hong Kong can learn from each other and create high-quality media for Chinese people around the world.
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