In late November, Taoyuan County magistrate Liu Pang-you was murdered, and from the very first day, the story occupied a great amount of time in all TV news broadcasts. When investigators and police were looking for one major suspect, Chang Chung-te, in the hope that he would come out in the light to offer an explanation, Chang appeared on one cable TV station to claim his innocence. The broadcast of this "scoop" opened up a public debate. Were the electronic media neglecting to report information to the police in order to get ahead in this news race? Or were they providing an ordinary citizen a hard-to-come-by means of expression? When Chang Chung-te claimed he was innocent during the interviews, was he to a certain degree influencing the investigation of this case?

Malnourished viewers

No matter who wins this debate, few people would deny that in Taiwan "freedom of speech," "freedom of the press" and "the right to know" are catchy and powerful slogans. After martial law was lifted in Taiwan, the government gradually liberalized control over the media. Not only has the number of media channels increased, the range of public opinion being expressed has significantly broadened as well.

The tide of liberalization has given most Taiwanese families access to dozens of television channels when they turn on their TV, from both conventional broadcast channels and cable. One might think that Taiwan's viewers would be as happy as can be, yet in fact we are a group of malnourished viewers.

The late senior journalist Chang Chi-kao once said that the problem of Taiwan's broadcasting media is definitely not to be solved by the word "liberalization." The key issues are, "For whom should it be liberalized?" and "What is the purpose of liberalization?" Hsu Chia-shih, former professor at National Chengchi University's department of journalism, notes that in order to examine what expectations the media have fulfilled after being liberalized, one must examine what range the media has allowed for "the public to share."

Bloodthirsty news race

Unfortunately, if we examine our TV stations according to the indicator of "being shared by all people," in Professor Hsu Chia-shih's opinion, the field seems to be dominated by TV stations pursuing political gain or profit.

Since TV news coverage evolved from being dominated by the three conventional broadcast stations to being flooded by ambitious cable-TV competitors, the boisterous scene of reporters pointing microphones, hoisting cameras and chasing news stories can be seen everywhere. When a series of socially significant news events broke out, TV stations began to use satellite news gathering (SNG) as a competitive weapon, bringing live coverage into viewers' households.

What's regrettable is that the emphasis placed by newscasters on being quick and extending the time of broadcast doesn't mean our newscasts have become more diverse or offer more depth. Take for example the recent mass murder in the residence of the Taoyuan County magistrate. Right after the news broke, TV news teams took out the magical weapon of live coverage from the scene. But what we witnessed was merely "reporters who don't even have their stories written. They just stagger in front of the camera," as one viewer put it. "Vicious competition has led TV stations to hunt with dedication for bloodthirsty shots which stimulate the senses, rather than opening up the possibility of enlarging the space for public dialogue," says associate professor of journalism Su Heng of National Chengchi University.

The long wait for Public TV

The fact that vicious competition has made TV news shallow has caused quite a few people to look forward to the single public TV station. But Public TV, which has taken nine years to plan, six years to establish and NT$5.4 billion to build, is still on hold, because the Public Television Broadcasting Law has yet to be passed by the Legislative Yuan.

The major reason why the Public Television Broadcasting Law has been delayed for so long is that all parties are at a standoff over the three most controversial issues: What authority does Public TV have? How is the Public TV committee to be fielded? And how are funds to be collected? Three different revised versions of the law have appeared. In addition, ever since the Committee for Planning and Establishment of Public TV started operating, there has been incessant controversy. At one time, the Control Yuan even stepped in to look into the accusation that the committee abused their budget. In the meantime, the evolution of media culture has had a negative impact on the process of building up PTV.

In order to hasten the passage of the Public Television Broadcasting Law, which has been languishing in the Legislative Yuan for six years, scholars organized a lobby group, the Alliance for the Advancement of Public Media. The chief organizer of this group is Chu Hai-yuan, a researcher of ethnicity at the Academia Sinica, who says, "most of the legislators opposed to PTV are not addressing the issue with a view to the whole system, but rather are assuming a position of pessimism and distrust about the practical operations of a public TV station."

If some people do not support PTV because the electronic media have been dominated by the ruling party, the provincial government and the army and there has been no room for the existence of public TV, Chu suggests a comparison-"That's like saying that Taiwan is incapable of implementing democracy, so we might as well just abort our democratic institutions." Even though such an important democratic institution as the Legislative Yuan remains defective, "we are still patiently waiting for it to get better. We never say we want to abolish it."

In early December of last year, the Public Television Broadcasting Law was first placed on the Legislative Yuan's agenda, and the legislators started discussing its every provision. Those legislators who support the law say that the TV programs we currently have are hardly up to snuff. The ones to be blamed for Taiwan's questionable quality of culture are commercial TV stations. In order not to let Taiwan's programming be devoured by alien pop culture, we need a public television station to produce high-quality shows.

Those who oppose it say "there is no room for public stations." It is hard to guarantee that any TV station funded by the government will not become the government's mouthpiece. After it starts broadcasting, the annual cost of NT$2.4 billion might very well become a financial burden on the government, not to mention that, being surrounded by dozens of highly competitive channels, PTV will have a hard time surviving.

Public doesn't equal government-run

During the second reading of the Public Television Broadcasting Law, the Legislative Yuan eliminated the most controversial provision, which stipulated that the three broadcast TV stations donate 10% of their annual earnings as public television funds, and they added a new provision that the government allocate a budget to cover all the costs for PTV. This move triggered a fiery attack from legislator Chou Chuan. "Public equals the government. The transcendental and independent characteristics of the public forum will completely fall within the control of political forces."

As for all the questions and doubts about PTV, Chu Hai-yuan thinks, "The greatest misunderstanding is that they mistake public for government-run," because the government's budget is actually the taxpayers' money.

Hsu Chia-shih emphasizes that the government's paying the money doesn't mean that the government will take control. It can be prevented through the design of laws. The Public Television Broadcasting Law stipulates that the general manager and assistant general manager cannot be incumbent civil servants or be in the employ of a political party. At the same time, to secure professionalism and autonomy in news broadcasting, the law stipulates that its news department should work under a "news production and broadcast agreement."

"Public" doesn't belong to the government, but it belongs to the entire citizenry. The question is, who represents the citizenry as a whole? Particularly in the face of the diverse stratification of society and the fact that different groups of people hold different positions of power, how are the varying needs of various people to be reflected? And how is the ideal of involving all the people to be realized?

Realizing the public sphere

"The spirit of public-mindedness lies in fairness, openness and reason," states National Chengchi University professor of journalism Weng Hsiu-chi, who takes as an example the number of talk shows which advocate the slogan "The involvement of all the people." "Those kinds of shows which let the audience call in to talk are only open in form," because the TV stations still determine the programs' production, what topics to talk about, and who gets invited to the shows. "Not to mention, how can all the opinions of the public be clearly expressed within one or two minutes?"

For example, she is very familiar with the situation in German public television. German law stipulates that television stations must open up a specific amount of time every week for individuals and groups to do their own programs, under the condition that they do not violate copyrights or the right to privacy. The television stations must provide hardware and professional technical assistance.

"All of a public TV station's activities must be transparent, and they must increase the opportunities for public access," affirms Chang Chin-hua, director of National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Journalism. He believes that the public television station should establish a public archive, where all personnel, salaries, programs, contributions and research reports would be made available to the scrutiny of the academic community and the public. This would reduce the possibilities for secret activities.

Confronted with skepticism from the outside, Wang Hsiao-hsiang, secretary-general of the Public Television Organizing Committee, which has been in existence for six years, responds to doubts that PTV may descend to the level of commercial television or become a mouthpiece of the government with the challenge, "Please look at the evidence of our programs themselves." In fact, programming is the only method to express the fundamental quality and uniqueness of Public TV. The parameters for PTV's development would lie within the scope of news, in-depth reports and children's programs.

News is the spirit

What the Public Television Organizing Committee did not foresee was that the long delays in deliberating the Public Television Broadcasting Law would stimulate a considerable debate on whether PTV should broadcast news. Doubts were expressed that "Public TV might become the fourth government station, and support the ruling party through the news." In order to lessen these doubts about influences from outside, Government Information Office director general Su Chi suggested as a last resort that PTV not do "daily news."

At the end of October, legislator Kao Hui-yu held a public hearing on "whether PTV should be established more quickly." During the hearing, she fervently opposed the idea that public television be without a news department. The reason was that "the entire spirit of public television lies in in-depth reporting. That's how the ideas of the public can be expressed."

The academic experts on mass media attending the hearing were completely in agreement with this point of view. Chang Chin-hua stated, "The greatest reason given by those who stand up and oppose PTV are concerns that Public TV will become Government TV." Chang believes that it is impossible to expect that the media will be entirely independent of government interference. "Nevertheless, we hope that Public TV will be able to let any kind of social force exercise its powers of influence. We will not consent to any kind of 'systematic, organized' involvement."

Yang Hsien-hung left PTV because of the perpetual delays in starting operation, and he is now serving as the news department manager at Formosa Television, Taiwan's fourth broadcast TV station, scheduled to begin broadcasting next year. Yang believes that as long as it does not compromise with governmental or commercial forces, PTV news will be quite competitive, because "their rivals are very weak!"

In his view, the vast majority of Taiwan's viewers are merely maintaining their viewing habits. It's not that the news on the three conventional broadcast stations is done well. In terms of quantity, they are able to satisfy demands for information. But in terms of quality, there is quite a lot of room for improvement. A portion of the cable TV stations have said they would provide "different" news, "but what viewers want is not different, but better," says Yang Hsien-hung.

The space to record

The position of PTV in the future seems to be to steer clear of government intervention, to broadcast programs that have shed the burden of commerce, and to move in the direction of diversity. Is it possible that commercial TV has failed to provide a diverse selection?

This is in fact the case. "After Taiwan's television environment had its major reshuffle, the alternative nature of cable TV failed to materialize," says Ming Chuan University associate professor of mass communications Chiang An-kuo. As a scholar and policy-maker, he believes that it is unfeasible to create space within television's current commercial system for what is most urgently needed in television-in-depth reports, documentaries and children's programs that show concern for people and culture.

The example most often cited when discussing documentaries appearing on television is Full Scene film studio. After spending three years documenting the real-life situations of Taiwan's albinos, the people at Full Scene completed "Moon Children," but no television station was willing to air it. Over the course of two years, the personnel at Full Scene undertook a "self-rescue operation," carrying their film to temples, campuses and community activity centers all over Taiwan for one viewing after another. They finally gained the attention of the cultural community and the media, and thus won the chance to broadcast the program.

Li Chun-huan, a producer at the Pupu Broadcasting Company, which spent two years documenting the folk culture of Taiwan's temple festivals, and has aired 13 programs of the series "Performance Troupe Legends" on PTV, says that if Public TV can successfully go on air, it will be good news for Taiwan's "lonely image recorders." " All of us who engage in documenting images share the dilemma of not knowing where to air our next program," says Li. PTV is the future "promised land" for them.

Hard to serve children

In addition to documentaries, children's programs are another field into which PTV plans to make inroads. Up to now, serialized soap operas and variety shows have been what TV stations have put most of their energy into. Therefore, those shows are arranged to be aired at prime time, around eight o'clock at night. At the same time, educational and informative programs have been pushed to the sidelines, and they certainly don't attract much advertising. Li Chun-huan says, "This is a vicious cycle."

Rosalyn Chang, general manager of Dave's Studio, run by the famous host of children's programs Dave Tao, once did a small survey of the current market of children's programs. She found that among CTV, CTS, TTV, Super TV, Star Plus and TVBS, the quantity of cartoons purchased from America and Japan amounts to 49 hours combined, and the children's programs they produce on their own add up to only 10.5 hours.

Unless we use cartoons to fill up time, we need to have more creative children's programs. It is a pity that the production funds available usually cannot compare to those for serial dramas or variety shows. Prime-time variety shows aired at 8:00 pm sometimes have production budgets as high as NT$1 million, whereas production budgets for children's programs on the average reach no higher than NT$80,000, and are sometimes as low as NT$30,000.

Program report card

How then can PTV add nutrition to the "eating habits" nurtured by the powerful commercial television stations?

According to the conception of public television, after they begin broadcasting, news-oriented programming will air 30% of the time. Made-in-Taiwan productions (both in-house and out-of-house) will occupy roughly half of the broadcast hours, with about 20% of the time left to foreign shows. It is impossible to store up news programming, because this kind of program must by nature be timely. In recent years, PTV has accumulated a stockpile of 900 hours of film which can be shown at any time, the majority of which are shows for children and youth, and cultural programs.

Children's programs on commercial TV usually give less consideration to the needs of different age groups; instead, "all ages are lumped together, from kindergarten to the first year of junior high." PTV however makes an effort to differentiate between age levels. Among those shows already completed, "Fruit Ice Cream" teaches little children to recognize Chinese characters. "Kid's Poetry Tour" and "Green Diary," however, are both geared for children already in school.

In addition, they offer "Listen and See," which includes relevant lifestyle information in sign language for the hearing-impaired; "Eternal Tribe," which gives reports on the indigenous peoples; "Threads of Reminiscence," which documents traditional crafts on the verge of disappearance, such as making wooden sandals and firing pottery; "Formosa," which presents in-depth investigations on the historical journeys of Taiwan's first settlers; and various cultural programs, such as "Peking Opera," "Kun-shan Opera" and "Gezai Opera."

The functions of television are to entertain, inform and educate. "We haven't created any new functions, but only changed the tendency of commercial television to rank entertainment in first place," says Wang Hsiao-hsiang. PTV's programming arrangement will certainly break the time-segment framework of commercial TV. During the current three-month test broadcasting period from November to January, they have chosen the 8:00 pm prime time slot to air "No Cram School Today," in which they invite teachers of various subjects to answer young students' questions live on the air.

Wang Hsiao-hsiang frankly states that public television's greatest challenge is personnel turnover in the news department. Two-thirds of the reporters who tested into the station have left; 90% of those who left did so because the station was unable to start broadcasting. The reporters deserted "because they had no battlefield." Referring to the many controversies that have arisen during the preparatory period, Wang knowingly observes, "My immediate mission is to get PTV up and going. There's no need to spec-ulate about whether I'll stay or go."

Only just begun

When the Legislative Yuan held a meeting to discuss the law, some legislators expressed strong doubts. "After the Public Television Broadcasting Law is passed, will public opinion be fair? Will the cultural level of the whole population be raised?"

Yang Hsien-hung believes, "The debate over PTV should continue over the long term. The passage of the Public Television Law should be the beginning, not the end." "I don't believe that when PTV comes out it will solve all of television's problems, but as for whether it will be able to give it a shot in the arm, let's try and see!" Weng Hsiu-chi says. And compared to the current standards of broadcast and cable TV, without the pressures of ideological correctness and profit, how could PTV do a worse job?

In 1990, when the Public Television Organizing Committee was founded, the 22 members of the first session wrote down "three don'ts" and "three dos" for the future direction of the station: "Don't serve commercial profit; don't serve political groups; don't seek to win the ratings game" and "Do seek professional management leadership; do transcend partisan factionalism and politics; do place content above hardware." Today, six years later, the milieu of television has changed. PTV's guidelines have not.

Nevertheless, there is ultimately some gap between the ideal and reality. For instance, just when there were only two days remaining in the latest session of the Legislative Yuan, the New Party proposed a "revised agenda," which was passed. Afterwards, the Public Television Broadcasting Law was no longer listed as priority legislation. The KMT also commented that due to the many controversies surrounding PTV, it could not wholeheartedly support it either.

Today, after 15 years of debating public television, we have returned to the starting line again. Faced with such an outcome, Wang Hsiao-hsiang says with a tone of despair that words like "depressed" or "shattered" are not adequate to describe the feelings just now of the staff at the Public Television Organizing Committee. The Legislative Yuan's ongoing meeting today (December 31) is the last of its current session. With the PTV Act listed as the ninth priority bill for review, there is still a hope-though a very remote one-that it might be rushed through at the last minute.

The purpose of news is to satisfy the public's "right to know." News programs can also serve as "public forums.".

In order to leave behind a record of the natural environment, many worke rs in the film industry are willing to face the hardships of rambling through the wilderness. Th ey only hope that there will be space to show their productions. （photo courtesy of Pupu Broadca sting Company）

The purpose of Public TV is to serve the public. Taking care of the need s of all the many different groups is a considerable challenge for program makers.

PTV's signal is first transmitted to a satellite, from which it is beamed to their ten relay stations throughout Taiwan and then transmit ted to the public via UHF radio waves. Citizens must use a cable TV network or a UHF antenna to receive PTV's signal.

From November to January, PTV is conducting a three-month test broadcasting period. The picture shows the produc tion of the live program "No Cram School Today," which helps answer children's study questions.

News industry professional Wang Hsiao-hsiang came back to Taiwan six years ago to organize Public TV. He says that PTV's hardware is for the most part up and running. If the Public Television Broadcasting Law is not ratified, this will amount to a tremendous waste.