Taiwan's Young People Are Driving Independent Media in the Country
One of the world’s youngest democracies, Taiwan is sadly marked by an ongoing war of disinformation throughout its mainstream media. This has led to widespread public distrust in journalism in the country—an anomaly for democracies (though the United States has similar statistics). However, there may be an information rennaissance happening before our very eyes.
The Sunflower Student Movement was a watershed moment for youth-led independent media in Taiwan. In April 2014, ten students occupied Taiwanese parliament for 24 days to protest the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, which aimed to liberalize trade between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) but was criticized on the grounds that the Kuomintang (KMT) leadership in Taiwan had not negotiated the treaty in a democratic way. The Sunflower Student Movement was the largest organized youth effort in Taiwanese history, and marked the very first time that the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s unicameral legislature, was disrupted by peaceful protesters. Following the success of the movement, young people in Taiwan have become more passionate about organizing.
Members of this movement would go on to join The Reporter, which now boasts a newsroom in Taipei and around 40 employees, with an average age of 30. "We don't run ads, we don't do product placement. On top of that, we do investigative reporting and are not affiliated with any party. That's what makes our brand and inspires trust from our readers," said Wang Yen-Chen, the outlet's social media editor. "No sponsor is a decision maker; it doesn't matter if they’re a founder or a manager of the media, or how much they invest."
One of the major problems in Taiwan’s disinformation wars is that private sponsors control the flow of information. The Reporter has already begun to break this paradigm by being transparent about who its sponsors and donors are. This also ensures that no disinformation campaigns from China, which are currently targeting Taiwan at alarming speeds, infiltrate the newsroom.
Adding even more concern and need for independent transparent sources: Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which has stoked fears that China may do the same to its recently independent neighbor. The election of left-leaning and Taiwanese nationalist leader Tsai Ing-Wen and the Democratic Progessive Party has stoked tensions among the two nations even further.
"After the Ukraine war, the polls clearly show that Taiwanese people support having a stronger defence… Especially the younger generation show a strong will to defend our own country," Freddy Lim, a young Taiwanese national, told the BBC.
Taiwan has a mighty fight ahead of it to keep its journalistic waters clear. "The current market does not work," said Chen Yi-Shan, editor of Commonwealth, Taiwan’s first independent magazine. Taiwan ranks 38 in the world on RSF’s Global Press Freedom Index.
