Among those in favor of interviewers shelling out for the privilege, Fu Pei-jung held that scholars, whose time is precious, are disturbed too often and their research will be affected. His opinion is representative of the group in favor.

"I believe that reporters ought to pay a fee," he said. "For example, today everyone received a 'transportation allowance' for coming to this round table discussion. I think that's reasonable. In today's industrial and commercial society, everyone's time is precious--if you're going to ask for instruction, you ought to pay for it. You might say their scholarship comes from society, but in fact their opinions are a result of their own ponderings and are not society's."

Paying for the Goods: Ma Yi-kung believes that the interviewer can pay money--but with conditions. Only when the interview or the article exceeds a certain number of words or amount of time can one start talking about a fee. For normal inquiry and consultation, she said, one can leave a souvenir--such as a book, photo, magazine, memo, etc.--to express one's thanks. Lu Hueyfen had a question in response:

"Miss Ma, you support interviewers paying money, but you also acknowledge that some people hope to be interviewed whereas others are more reserved. If some people like to be interviewed and don't request a fee paid to them, could it develop that good scholars would be replaced by weaker ones?"

"I think not, because news events are different from professional matters. If it's regarding a news event, such as the interviewee's views on the Gulf War, it wouldn't involve the problem of souvenirs or respect. Or if Professor Fu was publishing a book and was hoping for media exposure--this wouldn't be a problem. But in cases of specialized knowledge there might be a problem. Generally speaking, one need not pay for interviewing for a news event. I think this kind of situation would never happen: You make a phone call and ask three questions, and I say at the end, 'Hand over NT$500."

Who Should Get the Transportation Fee? Like Ma Yi-kung, Wang Li-hsing also believes that reporters should pay an interview fee, but she tags on a few conditions.

"I believe that paying a fee is only a procedural problem: For a news event it's not necessary, but for an interview that takes up an hour or two--that's another matter. Let me further explain why an interview might go on for an hour or two. Perhaps some reporters are relatively young and inexperienced and desire to do a good job. Hence they think the more thorough, the better. As a result, often scholars will joke, 'We are educating the reporters--it's as if we giving them class.' I often smile and say--then you're doing something for society."

Her remarks brought laughter from all around, which was followed by Ma Kai's declaring his adamant opposition to fees.

"Professor Fu says that the interviewer ought to pay a transportation fee, but in fact we should pay the transportation fee because it is the reporter who has to catch a ride to our offices or research labs and interview us.

"If the fee paying would be carried out firmly, it's not going to be NT$500 or NT$1,000 every time, but as people have mentioned some are very willing to be interviewed while others are not. According to the laws of economics, there are some people who ought to pay the fee and others who ought to receive it, and the fee could range from NT$50 to NT$5,000. If it's going to be like this, of course the market functions are going to come fully into play, but with what result? The spirit behind why the learned are willing to spend time and energy to talk to the media will be completely transformed.

"And there's something else. Perhaps it will bring the competition of 'economic scale.' Those with a large circulation can pay NT$1,000 and have low costs, but smaller publications will have higher costs, and perhaps in the end the smaller members of the media will grow weaker and weaker. Paying a fee shouldn't be written in stone. If media organizations are willing to pay, let the interviewed have an unexpected surprise, but it shouldn't be required. If an organization wants to express thanks for disturbing a scholar, it can send a small gift at New Year's or other major festivals. It needn't be of great value. This fits in with the Chinese tradition and is an appropriate way for expressing thanks and respect."

Let the Readers Give the Answer: Finally, based on his experience, Chen Hao described the relationship between new trend for reporting and paying fees in newspapers.

"Previously because scholars very rarely appeared in news reports, there was only the writer's fee, and no problem with a fee for the interview. Now it's completely different. Intelligent newspapers have thought of a way: reporters interview, make notes and write the interview, and the newspapers publish them under the scholars' names. The result is that the reporter and the scholar both get money, and there are two payments for the article."

But is "making everyone happy" the best way of handling this problem? We'll leave that to the reader.

Li Ching-an: Television is like lens or mirror in front of the face, but it's not a normal mirror and not one of those ones that distorts one's appearance, but rather a lens that is able to condense light so that it appears in its essence.

Hsu Chia-shih: The main opinion makers in Taiwan are government officials, political parties, other political organizations and scholars, which are different from the special interest and pressure groups that one finds abroad.