More Media Issues: New Child Protection Laws

Another issue I've just been alerted to: an NGO is pushing a bill through the Legislative Yuan. Its backers are trying to push it through the LY by the end of this month. A friend described it to me:

It's about an NGO-backed amendment to child protection laws purportedly aimed at protecting the sensitivities of the nation's youth that would make it illegal for newspapers to describe certain criminal behavior (e.g. murder, drug use, or suicide) in extensive detail (using either words or pictures.)

Basically, if passed, it would mean that when reporting on the recent Sean Lien shooting case, newspapers would have only been able to say "Sean Lien has been shot" or something similar and that would be about it.

The media of all political stripes are against it. Apple Daily has had several editorials on it, noting:

此新增條文是以大幅限制言論新聞自由為手段而達其保護兒童少年身心之目的；但從《憲法》保障人民基本權利的角度觀察，其所採取的手段與欲達成的目的是否有必要性？

This new provision in the law substantially restricts speech and media freedom in the name of protecting children and adolescents. But from the standpoint of Constitutional protections of the people's basic rights, is it necessary to use such measure to achieve this goal?

But one can't help noting that Taiwan's sensationalistic news, with its constant invasions of privacy -- filming bleeding people hauled off in ambulances, barging into emergency rooms -- has, at least in part, brought this on itself. Perhaps some negotiation with the LY as a body to accept voluntary regulation would stem the necessity for odious legal restrictions?

REF: Draft of law in Chinese:
《兒少法》修正草案增列「報紙條款」重點
◎第44條 新聞紙不得刊載下列有害兒童及少年身心健康之內容： 描述（繪）犯罪、施用毒品、自殺行為細節之文字或圖片。描述（繪）暴力、血腥、色情、猥褻、強制性交細節之文字或圖片。
◎第90條（罰則） 違反第44條各款規定之一，刊載有害兒童及少年身心健康之新聞紙內容者，處新聞紙業之負責人新台幣10萬元以上、50萬元以下罰鍰，並公布其姓名或名稱。註 ．兒童及少年定義為未滿18歲之人； 《兒少法》修正草案僅完成初審，須待立院三讀通過。
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Daily Links:

• WSJ on the property bubble in the Taipei Basin. I think WSJ errs only in one respect -- the KMT wants the bubble to spill over to other cities, not to restrain it from doing so, since (1) it will make the construction-industrial state firms who support the KMT even more supportive and (2) lots of small homeowners might benefit.
• Chen Yunlin arrives in Taiwan for more sellout talks.
  
• The 100 most influential figures in ROC history shows how contested history is.
• AU optronics to build $3 billion plant in China.
• Taiwan salaries expected to rise this year. Good news for locals.
• Jamestown Brief, as always with good stuff: China's expanding naval presence; China's growing force project capabilities.
• You already knew if you have been following events, but Google Labs word search (what a tool!) shows how Chinese showed zero interest in the Senkakus until the late 1960s. You can change the base date to even earlier; same result.
  
• Deep ocean heating blowing away Antarctic ice much faster than expected.

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