More Bad News for Taiwan Media Climate: Free Metro Apple Daily

As if the pay version of Apple Daily isn't disgusting enough, Taiwan's media environment is going to take another blow with Hong Kong Chinese Jimmy Lai's decision to launch a free version of the tabloid Apple Daily for the metro:

According to report by TVBS in Taiwan, Next Media, a Hong Kong-based media tycoon decides launch a toll-free tabloid in Taipei in this month. Jimmy Lai, boss of Next Media sold 12.07 % share of the company, decide put 3.3 billion New Taiwan Dollars on scrabble for the daily newspaper market in Taiwan.

When you take metro in Taipei, you may get Metro Edition of United Daily News or China Times, two of most popular newspaper in Taiwan, these papers were toll-free. When Next Media decide publish Metro Edition of Apple Daily, the news is no less than a hard blow for 2 newspapers above.

Lai behaves ambitiously these days. He assume personal command in Taipei recently , in order to the come out of new toll-free tabloid.

Just what we need: more sensationalizing, more gossip, and more fiction, and more foreign-owned, pro-Blue media mouthpieces. *sigh*

[Taiwan] [media] [Hong Kong] [China]

F-16s: Bush Screws Taiwan, Japan, and the US

'A week,!' said Hirgon. 'If it must be so, it must. But you are like to find only ruined walls in seven days from now, unless other help unlooked-for comes.'

I knew in 2000 that the Bush Administration was going to be an absolute disaster for the US, but the one silver lining I saw in that spreading ichor of dark clouds was the Administration's support for Taiwan. Now it looks like even that tiny sliver of good has been lost, as the Bush Administration has suspended F-16 sales to Taiwan.

Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) yesterday said that although the US Department of Defense supported the sale of F-16C/D fighter jets to Taiwan, US President George W. Bush had decided to suspend the sale.

"Bush decided to suspend the arms procurement because Taiwan has not made any progress with its long-delayed arms procurement bill," Lee told the legislature's National Defense Committee yesterday.

"A high-ranking official from the US Department of Defense in charge of US arms sales to foreign countries earlier this year told the Ministry of National Defense (MND) that the US would sell F-16C/D fighter jets to the country," Lee said.

"The American Institute in Taiwan in late August submitted a reference of the prices at which the US was selling F-16C/D fighters to its allies, but since that time there has been no progress on the arms sales from the US, and the MND later learned from US officials that Bush had decided to suspend the bill," the minister said.

Last month, the media reported that the White House National Security Council had recommended that the F-16 sale be blocked, because the island's legislature had refused to purchase the overpriced and useless submarines, the pointless P-3C Orion subhunting aircraft, and the extremely useful Patriots missiles.

The White House National Security Council (NSC) has advised U.S. President George W. Bush to reject new sales of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan in order to avoid upsetting China, according to The Washington Times Friday.

The move would also signal disapproval with Taipei for its failure to procure submarines, surveillance aircraft and anti-missile defenses offered by the United States since 2001, the paper said.

"To avoid upsetting China"! All gods forbid that we upset China! What a spineless, shortsighted, self-defeating decision! Consider: the presence of additional fighters will help deter Chinese military aggression against Taiwan, and force them to purchase far more fighters to cope with the Taiwanese jets. In case of war they will represent 60 fighters that the US will not have to supply, pay for, maintain, and staff with pilots and mechanics. When war comes, the US one way or another will have to supply 60 fighters, and more than 60. Here's someone offering to pay, staff, and maintain them in a forward position. Duh.

Further, by not sending F-16s to Taiwan, the US rewards the KMT-led Blue alliance for blocking the arms purchase. The KMT does not want any arms purchases at the moment, since it is cooperating with China, successful purchases the DPP look good, and no kickbacks will come to them. The Blue camp must be quaking in its boots: Don't throw us in the briar patch again, Uncle Sam! If the US really wants Taiwan to purchase those weapons, it needs to lean on the Blues, and hard. It needs to stop coddling KMT visitors. It needs to get credible people over here who will warn the KMT that US patience is exhausted, and that the US will switch its support to the Greens if the KMT does not start serving the interests of Taiwan, and it needs to keep doing that until the message gets through. It is incredible at this late date, with the Blues blocking the arms purchase after promising it would go through, fomenting unrest in Taiwan's streets, paralyzing the government, and cooperating with China, that any American policymaker could consider them a viable partner for future long-term cooperation.

Militarily, this is an ill-considered decision. Recall that the US wants Taiwan to buy P-3C Orion antisubmarine aircraft. There's no doubt that such aircraft would be useful for Taiwan in its quest to free the oceans of Chinese submarines. However, these are huge, slow, four-engine propeller aircraft that cannot be used -- or even defended in their airbase -- unless Taiwan controls the airspace around the island. Taiwan cannot do that without fighter aircraft -- and here the US is refusing to sell Taiwan such aircraft. We won't even mention that in modern history no large invasion has been successful in the face of enemy control of the air. That's just too obvious.

The Bush Administration also has failed its allies -- what is Japan supposed to think of our commitment to regional security, and to peace in the Taiwan Strait? The Administration has an opportunity here to signal Japan that it is willing to support Japan in areas that nation considers vital to its strategic interests. Instead it is fumbling the ball.

There is no angle from which selling F-16s to Taiwan is a bad idea. That's millions of revenues for US corporations and their workers, and 60 more aircraft to keep the peace in the region, support our allies, and assure democracy in Taiwan. Even China will get over it sooner or later. I hope the US NSC wakes up soon, and gives us the weapons we need to keep Taiwan free. "For the love of God, Montresor!" don't wall us up in the catacombs of Chinese aggression-- sell us the F-16s!

[Taiwan] [US] [China] [Democracy] [DPP] [F-16] [KMT] [Taiwan Relations Act (TRA)] [US Foreign Policy]

Taichung by Day and Night

Tuesday night and Wednesday morn I was at the university with the Olympus and decided to see how things looked through the 14X telephoto. Pretty damn good, I'd say.

Looking north across Wufeng and Taiping.

The foreshortening makes the crowding look even more dramatic.

Looking west across Tatu Mountain.

Downtown Taichung.

Looking due west between Taichung and Changhua.

Taichung city.

A close-up.

Another one.

Some of my first year econ students demanded that I take their picture. So here it is.

[Taiwan]

Taiwan Lures Japanese Seniors

Old Taiwan hand Lawrence Eyton pens on the plan to get Japanese retirees to come to Taiwan.

Japanese baby boomers are facing a cash crunch, but Taiwan is here to help.

Just do the math. The end of World War II saw a baby boom in Japan. With the nation's standard retirement age set at 60, the boomers are about to stop working. Indeed between 2007 and 2009 it is estimated that 7 million Japanese will retire. But to some, their new-found leisure poses a financial nightmare, for the simple reason that their pensions simply will not cover Japan's high cost of living. In 2004, research by the Japanese Life Insurance Cultural Center found that the average pension for a Japanese retiree couple would be ?10,000 (US$1,850) a month, while the average cost of living for such a couple in Tokyo is ?70,000 (US$3,250). Given that Japanese men have a life expectancy of 79 and women 85, the ?60,000 a month shortfall needs to be backed by substantial savings--a government report suggests ?0 million--so substantial in fact as to be more than three times the average held by most retirees. Many baby boomers are, therefore, facing a life of financial insecurity, even impoverishment.

Here Taiwan hopes to be of service. ?10,000 converts to almost NT$60,000 and in a country with an average salary of NT$36,000 a month, this can provide a comfortable lifestyle. Many other countries in the region, especially Malaysia and Thailand, have long marketed themselves as low-expense retirement destinations. Now with those 7 million Japanese retirees reaping pension payouts of ?0 trillion in the next three years, Taiwan is seeking a slice of a potentially lucrative market.

Of course, having thousands of Japanese retirees may also increase the chance of Japan intervening on Taiwan's behalf in conflicts with China...

[Taiwan] [Japan]

The Politics of Fifth Grade: For Their Own Good

I've been reading a lot of Alice Miller lately, sent to me by a loving friend in the US. Miller is a psychotherapist who has spent her career arguing that the harsh discipline and humiliation so many of our young experience results in the inexplicable need for power and control over others found among so many full-grown humans. I recently finished her very fine For Your Own Good, where she writes:

"It is the tragedy of well-raised people that they are unaware as adults of what was done to them and what they do themselves if they were not allowed to be aware as children. Countless institutions in our society profit from this fact, and not least among them are totalitarian regimes."

It is one of the themes of her work that brutal child-rearing methods -- the kind that parents here in Taiwan justify on the grounds that life is harsh and school should prepare kids for that reality -- create personalities that engage in brutality. Recent events at my daughter's school, small though they are, remind me of how adults in this society, in every society, are created as children.

Our drama began when CY., in the other class, left his wallet containing NT$900 in a desk in the social studies classroom. His class had vacated the room, my daughter's had already occupied it, and class had begun, when CY returned to say his wallet had been left at the desk. My daughter's teacher then decided to play bad-cop, bad-cop...

"Does anyone know where his wallet is?"
Silence. HT is sitting at the desk CY had formerly occupied.
"HT. Do you have his wallet?"
"No"
"Class, did anyone see HT with CY's wallet?" Not Did anyone see someone with CY's wallet? or Is it possible you might remember seeing it in someone's hand or backpack? In front of the whole class, he accused HT of stealing the wallet. Supremely humiliated, HT said nothing. The teacher then moved over to her desk, and searched her backpack, and only hers. Several of the students protested at this point; it was true they were the next class, but there was a ten minute recess, and students from many grades went in and out. Anyone could have taken the wallet.

My daughter came home and described this to my wife, who decided to wait a day before she called HT's mom to see if HT would report the incident to her. But this morning my wife bumped into her while discussing the case with another parent, and it turned out that HT hadn't told her mom....and the tale solved the puzzling question of why the principal had stopped at her house yesterday, out of the blue, to ask whether her daughter was happy at school. The interesting thing is that while the principal appears to have found out what happened, he apparently did not take any corrective action.

As soon as she heard, HT's mother went in to have a little meeting with the Fifth Grade Teacher (HT's Dad is on the board of the PTA and both parents are alumni of my daughter's school -- that's forty years of clout between them). I have no idea what was said, but the fifth grade teacher totally lost it over this affair, according to my daughter. He got up in front of class later and said "HT's mom came to see me today! I didn't turn HT's backpack upside down, I just flipped through the books! Like this!" he said, hands flipping through the air. "That wallet had to go missing somehow!" he shouted. "Did the other teacher steal it? Did the principal steal it? Did I steal it?" My daughter's class watched in awed silence, HT looking for a crack in the earth to swallow her up.

I don't know how, as an adult, I would deal with humiliation like that. But how can a child? And the teacher cannot see that he too is passing on the humiliations that he suffered in this cruel system. When I ask my classes if they were hit in school, everyone raises their hands -- sheepishly, furtively, reluctantly. Because the humiliation and guilt and powerlessness is too great to think about. Yet people wonder where all the tremendous anger in Taiwan comes from....

[Taiwan]

Apple Daily just can't stop making up the news....

Pro-Blue blogger ESWN has the results of a push-poll from Apple Daily up on his blog.

[Permalink] The SOGO Case (10/03/2006) (China Post) The Presidential Office expressed satisfaction with prosecutors' decision to drop the probe against first lady Wu Shu-chen in a case that alleged she received gift vouchers for free and could have intervened in the transfer of the ownership of Pacific Sogo Department Store. ... The alleged improper receipt of free gift vouchers by President Chen Shui-bian's wife was one of the major factors that sparked the ongoing "anti-corruption and depose-Chen" campaign in Taiwan seeking to oust the president.

What do the people think? Here is Apple Daily's instant telephone phone poll (sample size 540; date October 2; computerized voice interviewing). In the SOGO case, Douglas Hsu will be prosecuted but the President's wife took NT$270,000 in gift vouchers and go free. Can you accept this outcome?
- 70.7% unacceptable; 24.2% acceptable; 5.0% don't know/no opinion.

Why is there so much incredulity?

Why is there so much incredulity? Well, because the media in Taiwan is overwhelmingly partisn and has low journalistic standards. Case in point: this poll. Roland sometimes points out push-polls, but for whatever reason missed this one. But let's check out the question Apple Daily asked:

In the SOGO case, Douglas Hsu will be prosecuted but the President's wife took NT$270,000 in gift vouchers and go free. Can you accept this outcome?

Note that the query is full of loaded language that elides both the truth and context -- "go free," for example, which tends to imply guilt, instead of the nuetral "unindicted." Note also that it contrasts one indicted person with one unindicted, thereby inviting listeners to answer in a negative way. The question is pure trash. Of course, it is Apple Daily we're talking about.....media ethics? Can't wait to see them on the Beautiful Isle.

Taiwan ESWN Apple Daily media

Tongyong Haters, rejoice!

Mark at Pinyin News reports that Tongyong has been rejected by government for Taiwanese romanization. Mark scribes:

I’m already on the record as having called Tongyong Pinyin, in its various incarnations, a national embarrassment for Taiwan, so I won’t bother to disguise the fact that I got a real kick out of the fact that the Tongyong Pinyin scheme for the Taiwanese language was roundly rejected. I know that more than a few readers of Pinyin News will be cheering this news. For many, this has as much or more to do with the methods used to push through the much-despised Tongyong Pinyin system for Mandarin than any defects, real or imagined, in the Tongyong Pinyin system for Taiwanese.

Mark speaks for many of us "colonialists" out there. Go and read the rest of his post; it's both entertaining and informative.

[Taiwan]

First Lady: Update

Feiren has expanded and updated his post, so I thought I'd get it up here:

There is a much more detailed article in the China Times now. Pacific Distribution Investment Co Chairman Lee Heng-lung withdrew gift vouchers worth NT$14.83 million from Sogo. Lee then gave Chen family doctor Huang Fang-yen vouchers through Huang's driver. Huang used the vouchers to make purchases totalling NT$2,190,500. He gave vouchers to the Chen family as gifts, and Wu Shu-chen and her two children made purchases totalling NT$277,000.

Chen's political enemies will insist that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that prosecutors were bought off. But the relatively small amounts involved highlight how quick the media and the rest of they baying pack were to rush to judgment that the entire Chen administration was rotten to the core.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth on the Dark Side is palpable.

[Taiwan]

...and in this corner, Wade...

Richard at Peking Duck pointed me to this great essay by columnist Andrew Leonard over at Salon.com on Wade and Giles of Wade-Giles, names everyone who has ever puzzled over a Chinese character knows....

All my adult life, the names Wade and Giles, the first two professors of Chinese at Cambridge, have been linked inseparably in my head, as I am sure is true for countless other students of Chinese. But how many know that the two men were enemies, or that one was opposed to missionary evangelization (also a sin in my book,) or was a powerful advocate for better treatment of Chinese by the British?

I first fell in love with Chinese characters when I bought every volume of Needham's classic Science and Civilization in China, which spends page after page ferreting out the history of characters both common and abstruse. The breadth and depth of Needham's knowledge, his reverence for history, his manifest love of the culture that had produced this strange writing system, his mastery of minutae, of facts, captivated me. That magical year, which I account one of the best of my life, I had just arrived in Taiwan. It was 1989 and the NT was 24 to the US dollar. Foreign English teachers were minting money. I was living in a hostel next to the train station, working 60 hours a week, living on buttered toast and milk, and staying up late at night waiting for my girlfriend to come home from her job pouring drinks in a nightclub. With nothing better to do in the wee hours of the morn, I cracked open a copy of McNaughton's book on Chinese characters, and memorized 15-25 a day, writing them over and over again just like a little kid, tongue stuck of one side of my mouth, one leg braced against the leg of the desk to steady it and me. I bought scads of out of print textbooks at the Shih Ta bookstore, learning Chinese by reading about how the great Chiang Kai-shek was going to retake the mainland from the Communist bandits. I could say Gwangfu before I could blurt out ni hao, read a newspaper before I could hold a conversation. At night I'd stumble through the uneven, overcrowded sidewalks of Taipei, beguiled by noise and neon, reading all the signs aloud, because I could. They were mine.

Alas, those days are gone. The hostel was plowed under to make way for the metro, and the crackling exuberance of the late '80s was demolished to make way for the malaise of the late '90s. The now with all its promise has become the future with all its disappointments, and the neon looks more like face paint than a healthy glow. But what I wouldn't give to be 26 again, strolling down Chang-an Rd at ten at night, murmuring the signs to myself.....

[Taiwan]

Breaking: No Charges for First Lady

Feiren at Taiwan Matters has the call:

President Chen's wife has been clearedin the Sogo vouchers case. Investigators found that she did accept NT$5 million in gift vouchers from a third party but that there was no evidence showing that she did so in return for help in a management struggle at Taiwan's most famed department store. As a result, prosecutors have not indicted her. One of the biggest wheels on the corruption allegations against Chen has just come off. Still the appearance of impropriety remains strong.

Who was the third party? What was the intention in giving all those vouchers?

What will the Blues do now? Their leaders have either admitted improprieties (Ma) or been convicted (Soong) or have associations with a notorious embezzler (Shih). It's a good thing they are against corruption; I'd hate to think what they'd be like if they supported it. The Bloomberg report linked by Feiren above, which is quite slanted, has the call:

"Our movement will likely gather momentum," said Jerry Fan, a spokesman for a campaign to oust Chen, after the prosecutors' decision was announced. "The judicial system can't live up to people's expectations."

They are never going to give up. If they are still demonstrating come the 2007 elections, this could seriously backfire on the Blues.

[Taiwan]

Big Ell is back...

Big Ell is back, with two very funny posts....

Fabulous Formosa

"....When I first became a father in Taiwan I wondered how I would be able to live vicariously through my daughter. Without many traditional sports I feared that I would have to focus on academics. I was getting ready to force my daughter into 10-12 hour school days. I was also preparing to threaten teachers and bribe officials to make sure she gets the top grades and dominates in the Social Darwin like classrooms in Taiwan. Then this whole Competitive Baby Games thing sort of fell into my lap..."

Life and Times of Big Ell

Big Ell returns to the land of Supersize:

"It was nice to see that Burger King has ditched the whole health food kick and added a burger called a BK stacker with single, double, triple and quadruple paddies. Stackers also have cheese, bacon and some kind of 1000 island sauce and NO vegetables. Heart stopping goodness in every bite."

[Taiwan]

TOC: Bulletin of Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica

H-ASIA
October 2, 2006

TOC _Bulletin of Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica_
**********
From: hllien@GATE.SINICA.EDU.T

Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce the publication of the latest issue of _Bulletin of Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica_. Please find the TOC below. For the back issues, please consult our website at http://www.mh.sinica.edu.tw/e/index-1.asp.

Best,

Ling-ling Lien
Assistant Research Fellow
Institute of Modern History
Academia Sinica,
Taipei, Taiwan


BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF MODERN HISTORY ACADEMIA SINICA

VOL. 53
CONTENTS

Articles
Pan Kuang-che Creating the _Volksgeist_ of China: Rethinking Liang Qichao's Cultural Nationalism and his Lun Zhongguo xueshu sixiang bianqian zhi dashi (On the Basic Trends of Chinese Intellectual Change)

Cheng Hwei-shing From Controlled Economy to Open Markets: The Foreign Trade Policy of the Post-War National Government

Lin Hsiao-ting The Cold War on the Periphery: American Underground Activities in China's Borderlands during the Post-World War II Period (1947-1951)

Yu Miin-lin From Singing Loud to Singing Low: Soviet Mass Songs in China

Research and Discussion
Feng Chi-hung War and Culture: Looking Back at the Last Decade of Historical Studies of the Culture of the Anti-Japanese War Period

Book Reviews
Peter Chen-main Wang Neil L O'Brien, An American Editor in Early Revolutionary China: John William Powell and the China Weekly/Monthly Review

Lin Man-houng Akamine Mamoru, The Ryukyu Kingdom

Hsu Hui-chi Shuei-may Chang, Casting Off the Shackles of Family:
Ibsen's Nora Figure in Modern Chinese Literature, 1918-1942

********

The abstract of the one on ROC trade policy looks quite interesting:

"Shortly after China declared victory in the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government abruptly shifted from its wartime control policies over foreign currency and trade to the cancellation of constraints on the export of agricultural products, and the abolishment of the Foreign Trade Committee and National Trade Corporation. Also exercising a noninterference policy on imported merchandise, the government further opened the gold and foreign currency markets. The initial intention of policymakers was to collect the vast amounts of excess currency issued during the war by means of opening the foreign currency market and selling gold reserves. In order to solve the shortage of goods and services as well as the serious inflation then plaguing society, they hoped that the import of large amounts of foreign merchandises would cure the ever-worsening inflation within a short period of time. Yet actual developments were a far cry from the government’s initial expectations. Opening the financial markets led to the outflow of government gold and foreign currency reserves. The unrestrained imports of foreign goods and services also immensely aggravated the huge imbalance between international revenues and expenses. And as the Civil War progressed, the economies in Guomindang-controlled districts fell beyond remedy, which contributed to the final fall of the Republic of China.

This article explores whether the political failure of the postwar government of the Republic of China was determined by its foreign trade policy. Drawing on an abundance of original sources and relevant research literature, the article begins with a comparison of foreign trade policy during and after the war. With the focus on the ever-changing domestic and international conditions of the postwar world, the article strives to probe into policymakers’ financial beliefs and mentality in an attempt to present a comprehensive description of the initial intentions, policy-making processes, and the precise content and ramifications of the postwar open market trade policy imposed by the government. An in depth inquiry into the background and reasons behind this particular is correspondingly provided."

[Taiwan]

Swenson's Meeting, October 7

Jerome Keating sends around the latest:

+++++++++

To all,
A happy upcoming Moon Festival to everyone; just remember not to point at the beautiful moon as you all know what will happen.

Our October meeting of the Breakfast Club will take place on Saturday Octgober 7th at Swensen's on Keelung Road at 9:30 am.

For newcomers, the full address of Swensen's is 81 Keelung Rd. Sec. 2. (phone 2735-3696). It is on the east side of Keelung, about two blocks south of Hsin Yi Rd. and right near where Kwang Fu dead ends into Keelung. You are also reminded that everyone buys their own breakfast--there is no free lunch or free breakfast in life, at least as far as I have found out. :) :)

Our speaker this time is Mark Stokes, a former Pentagon defense planner on the Pentagon Taiwan Policy for seven years.

We look forward to seeing you all; come for the synergy and serendepity.

Jerome

+++++++++

[Taiwan]

Over at Taiwan Matters!

Posting at Taiwan Matters! has slowed a bit with Jason having a new baby, me starting a PHD, new semesters beginning, and other stuff. Nevertheless, Wulingren had a great post there on Ancestor Worship and Politics (note to K., can't wait to see your piece on the ruler and the ruled here -- can we have it as a guest piece?) and I have taken apart another awful piece from the BBC on the faux protests in Taipei.

[Taiwan] [BBC] [Taiwan blogs]

Sucide and the Media: a filmmaker and an NGO join hands

A new effort is being made to attack Taiwan's appalling suicide rate, and to stop the media from sensationalizing suicide for its political goals. Suicide rates here are just under twice those in the US....

Official figures showed that suicide has been one of the top ten causes of death for the last eight years, with 4,282 people--or 18.8 per 100,000 people--killing themselves last year.

The effort is aimed at Taiwan's media....

Taiwanese media should avoid sensationalism and should be more sympathetic to victims when reporting on suicide incidents, a documentary director said at a press conference called by a Taiwanese media watchdog Sept. 7.

Filmmaker Chung Mong-hong won the best documentary award at this year's Taipei Film Festival for his film "Doctor," which tells the story of a Taiwanese doctor working in Iowa and later Miami in the United States, who had to deal with the loss of his own son to suicide and then that of a young patient to cancer.

At the press conference, Chung criticized what he called the "bloodthirsty" coverage of suicide on Taiwan's television stations, which overlooked the trauma experienced by those surviving the death of a loved one. Citing examples from his film, Chung said he had shown media reports from the Iowan town that allowed the bereaved to speak for themselves.

The Broadcasting Development Fund, a nonprofit media watch organization, called the press conference to release the results of its survey of media reports of suicide cases in Taiwan and to mark World Suicide Prevention Day on Sept. 10, a date designated by the World Health Organization for promotion of global and regional efforts focusing on the worldwide suicide problem.

Last month, the BDF released its analysis of negative coverage of suicides; this time the focus was on the rare cases of positive reporting. Both surveys looked at coverage by major TV channels and newspapers in Taiwan and were commissioned by the Department of Health.

The media frequently uses suicide as a way to attack the government...

Citing positive in-depth reports on one TV channel and discussions regarding increased suicides among young people by two newspapers, BDF CEO Connie Lin said that these few examples stood out. In contrast, she described local TV networks that stigmatized suicides for political purposes as "lacking conscience."

Lin pointed out that using reports of suicides as a means to criticize the government and politicians further impinged on relatives' bereavement. She urged local media to undertake a thorough soul-searching in line with suggestions promoted for World Suicide Prevention Day, whose slogan this year was "with understanding, new hope."

Expressing his anger, Chung argued that people commit suicides for various complex reasons and said that merely being a "credit card slave" was not automatically one of them. Journalists, he said, should deal with suicide cases in a most careful and delicate way.

What are the criteria of a proper suicide report?

Lu Wan-ping of the BDF explained in a telephone interview that the foundation used criteria taken from the WHO publication "Preventing Suicide: a resource for media professionals" to decide whether a suicide report was positive. These included whether a report highlighted alternatives to suicide, provided information on helplines and community resources, worked with health authorities to present facts and publicized risk indicators and warning signs.

Lu said that, while guidelines were available, it was up to individual reporters whether to follow them and to regulate themselves. These guidelines were published by Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center, which was established in December 2005 under the Department of Health to integrate suicide prevention resources and address the rising suicide mortality rate in Taiwan.

Suicide sucks. Let's hope efforts like this enjoy success.

[Taiwan]