Media activists yesterday urged the government to intervene to prevent politics from reaching into the press and controlling freedom of speech, saying that this freedom and the liberal media the nation has enjoyed over the past decades may be put at risk if Chinese capital gained control of the media.

The calls came amid reports that China Trust Charity Foundation chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) has asked Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) chairman William Wong (王文淵) and a Singapore-based equity fund to join him in buying Next Media Group’s (壹傳媒集團) four Taiwanese outlets: the Apple Daily, Next TV, Next Magazine and the Sharp Daily.