A Milestone for Press Freedom- The 48th Annual IPI World Conference Meets in Taipei

The 48th Annual International Press Institute World Conference was held in Taipei from May 17 to 19. This was the first time that the International Press Institute (IPI) chose Taiwan as the location for its annual world conference. Taiwan's domestic media saw this as an affirmation of journalistic freedom on the island.

The 48th Annual IPI World Conference was ushered in with grand solemnity to the accompanying music of the Ju Percussion Group. More than 300 members of the media from 42 countries throughout the world took part in the three-day conference.

Conference participants included such heavyweight political figures as former Philippines president Fidel Ramos and former US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston Lord (also a former US ambassador to Beijing), as well as a number of media figures, such as the chairman of IPI and editor of South Africa's Cape Argus Moegsin Williams, Associated Press vice president and director of world services Claude Erbsen, Reuters editor-in-chief Mark Wood, and the dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism Dean Mills.

Taiwan itself was represented by such major media as the United Daily News Group, the China Times Group and CommonWealth magazine, who worked together in support of the event. Diane Ying, chairman of the IPI ROC National Committee, says that Taiwan's media is vigorous and competitive, and the visitors attending this conference had the opportunity to experience these traits first-hand. Also, the guests were able to better comprehend the achievements of democracy in Taiwan.

ROC president Lee Teng-hui, himself the focus of much media attention, mentioned in his opening address that throughout ten years of promoting democratic reforms, he has always understood the significance of freedom and liberalization of the mass communications industry. It is a constant motivating force for democratic political development. In the future, the ROC will continue to practically implement and fully realize such essential components of civilization as democracy, freedom and human rights, striving in concert with others to achieve the goal of global press freedom.

The conference included three special seminars. In the first seminar, "New Aspects of Taiwan-Aspirations and Challenges," participants concerned themselves with the topics of how Taiwan can address the issues of national definition and self-identity, and how it can meet the challenges of global competition.

Lung Ying-tai, a writer participating in the conference, expressed the belief that a number of problems have surfaced for Taiwan during its current phase, such as unrestrained misuse of press freedom and over-politicization of society. At the same time, the issue of cross-strait relations that has persisted for the past half-century means that Taiwan exists under the shadow of mainland China and must face the problem of self-assertion and "Taiwanese consciousness." Nonetheless, she also pointed out that Taiwan is the only Chinese society that possesses a genuinely democratic system. The success or failure of Taiwan directly influences the development of mainland China, and in recent years Taiwan has developed its own form, creating the possibility for a renaissance in Chinese culture. She also described the Taiwanese as "continental people living on the ocean... I like to believe that the Taiwanese will become very good sailors because we know both the land and the sea." (For the English transcript of Lung Ying-tai's presentation, see this issue's Potpourri section, page 72.)

In the second seminar, "Taiwan/China: Possible Scenarios," chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation Koo Chen-fu reiterated the reality of separate political systems on either side of the Taiwan Strait and emphasized the rights of the Taiwanese people. In addition, he proposed the concept of "intermediate agreements" for the first time, expressing the belief that both sides of the Taiwan Strait should sign a number of intermediate agreements regarding matters of mutual interest, such as fishing disputes and crime prevention, thus incrementally constructing stable and peaceful bilateral relations. During his presentation, Koo also expressed optimism in regards to the visit to Taiwan this autumn of Wang Daohan, chairman of mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), and the resumption of active negotiations between the two organizations.

Because cross-strait relations are related to the security of the Asia-Pacific region, Mineo Nakajima, president of Japan's Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, believes that the United States, Japan and Taiwan ought to form an alliance. Nevertheless, the intervention of the United States may have negative effects. Therefore, some participants, including the author Bette Bao Lord, wife of Winston Lord, and Nicholas Platt, the president of the Asia Society, averred that the United States should remain uninvolved.

In the third seminar, "The Importance of the Asia-Pacific Region in the 21st Century," the focus of attention was placed upon the Asia-Pacific region's democratic development and economic strength. Former president of the Philippines Fidel Ramos called for every nation of Asia to cooperate in making the next century the Age of the Pacific. Kabun Muto, former Foreign Minister of Japan, commented that because the countries of Asia have large populations, which are hard-working and well-educated, he sees great prospects for the development of the Asia-Pacific region, despite the need of many countries to recover from the recent financial crisis.

During the three seminars, the focus expanded from Taiwan and cross-strait relations to the greater Asia-Pacific region. During the third day of the conference, there were briefings on the current state of press freedom in various countries, as well as the seminar "The Media's Changing Role," which addressed the impact of new technology. Several senior members of the media expressed the opinion that while the new Internet-based media have remarkable potential, the old medium of the newspaper will not be swept away, and instead will be improved by intense competition.

By the time the curtain came down on the successful three-day conference, discussion had ranged over such topics as freedom of the press, democracy, and regional security and development. The 48th Annual IPI World Conference not only afforded the elite participants a forum for exchange and growth, it also allowed Taiwan's increasingly internationalized society to observe and participate in discussions on international exchange and media issues. In addition, Taiwan won for itself more international friends, who saw the island's freedom and democracy at first hand.

One regrettable episode of this year's annual IPI conference was that the Institute had sought to hold next year's closing ceremonies at the United Nations, in order to celebrate the 49th annual conference and the 50th anniversary of the founding of IPI; however, because this year they chose to hold the conference in Taipei, an act highly objectionable to the PRC, the United Nations rejected the IPI's proposal, again highlighting the conflict of interests between Taipei and Beijing.

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The 48th Annual International Press Institute World Conference was held in Taipei, with many important dignitaries in attendance. Those present on the speaker's platform during the speech of IPI director Johann P. Fritz were (from left to right) IPI chairman Moegsin Williams, ROC president Lee Teng-hui, CommonWealth editor Diane Ying, United Daily News Group chairman Peter Wang, China Television Company CEO Cheng Su-ming and China Times publisher Albert Yu. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)