Taipei: Students from four of Taiwan’s top journalism schools on Thursday urged lawmakers to pass a proposed media bargaining act, including a journalism development fund. The absence of such legislation has contributed to a deteriorating media environment that could undermine Taiwan’s democracy, the students said at a press conference in Taipei.
According to Focus Taiwan, the students are enrolled at National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Taiwan Normal University, and Fu Jen Catholic University. They highlighted the dominance of social media platforms and their algorithms, which compel Taiwanese news outlets to sacrifice depth and quality for traffic and advertising revenue.
These conditions have led to the promotion of clickbait headlines and shallow content, making media outlets vulnerable to governments and large corporations and weakening their role as an independent Fourth Estate, said Cheng Hsin of National Chengchi University. Kuo Ssu-hsien of Fu Jen Catholic University emphasized the necessity of a journalism development fund, which could be financed through taxes on digital advertising revenue from global platforms or donations from businesses, government agencies, and private entities.
The fund should be managed by an independent committee and used to support investigative reporting while ensuring that media outlets of various sizes can operate sustainably, Kuo added. The students’ call echoed a petition launched in mid-June by Taiwan’s journalism and academic communities, which gathered over 1,500 signatures in just 10 days.
Around the same time, Minister of Digital Affairs Yennun Huang announced that the ministry aims to present its own version of the draft by the end of 2025. However, Legislator Lin Kuo-chen of the Taiwan People’s Party, who chairs the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, urged the ministry to act more swiftly due to the urgency of the issue. Lin warned that the committee will proceed with the drafts already submitted and seek majority consensus if the Ministry of Digital Affairs fails to submit a version soon, with the goal of finalizing a bill for review by the end of the year.
The current legislative session, which has been extended twice, will conclude on Aug. 31. Lawmakers failed to reach a consensus when the Transportation Committee and the Education and Culture Committee held a joint meeting to review the draft on Wednesday. A cross-party negotiation will be held for the draft.