Free
Press Before Security
TAIPEI
- Taiwan is willing to sacrifice its security to preserve a
free press and freedom of speech, President Chen Shui-bian
said in an interview with US-based Chinese-dissident poet and
magazine editor Bei Ling.
The issue of balancing media
freedom with national security is a sensitive one in Asia,
where many nations routinely censor journalists in the name of
security and social stability.
But Mr Chen told Mr Bei that
he opposed using 'national' security as an excuse to clamp
down on the media or restrict freedom of speech.
'We would rather have a free
press and sacrifice security,' he said, according to a
transcript of the interview in the United Daily News.
However, some critics have
complained that Mr Chen's government exceeded its powers in
March by confiscating issues of the weekly Next magazine,
which published classified documents allegedly leaked by a
rogue spy chief.
Despite the raid on Next,
Taiwan maintains a free and lively media culture that allows
editorials to lash out at the President and cartoonists to
lampoon top leaders.
Mr Chen said that democratic
Taiwan could serve as a 'lighthouse' for China if it ever
moved towards political reforms, and added that he felt a
personal responsibility.
'I'm not only Taiwan's
President,' he said. 'I hope I can have a definite influence
on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, on the greater Chinese
world and on Chinese history.' -- AP
Singapore
Straits Times 18 June 2002
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