Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Freedom House lowers Taiwan’s press ranking

Taipei Times

Taiwan continued to drop down the list of countries with a free press, a new global study on press freedom shows.

In a survey released on Monday by the Washington-based think tank Freedom House, Taiwan ranked 48th in the world in press freedom last year. It ranked 47th in 2009 and 43rd in 2008.

The nation scored a total of 24 negative points compared with 23 in 2009 and 20 in each of the previous three years.

Taiwan’s competitiveness is fading

Tung Chen-yuan 童振源

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has accused the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of restricting cross-strait trade exchanges, saying that this resulted in a sharp increase in Taiwanese investment in China and cross-strait trade. However, since Taiwan and China signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), Taiwanese businesspeople have shown a renewed willingness to return to Taiwan, Ma said, adding that this has caused cross-strait trade as a proportion of overall trade to decrease.

The truth is that after three years under the Ma administration, Taiwanese investment in China has surged, the number of Taiwanese businesspeople returning home has been limited, foreign investment has dropped and Taiwanese capital has flooded out.

Osama bin Laden killed by a US raid in Pakistan

Taipei Times

Osama bin Laden, the face of global terrorism and architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, was killed in a firefight with elite US forces yesterday, then quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run.

Long believed to be hiding in caves, bin Laden was tracked down in a costly, custom-built hideout not far from a Pakistani military academy. The stunning news of his death prompted relief and euphoria outside the White House and around the globe, yet also fears of terrorist reprisals against the US and its allies.

“Justice has been done,” US President Barack Obama said in a dramatic announcement at the White House.

NCC demands accounting from SET-TV

Taipei Times

The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it would send an official letter to SET-TV asking the station to explain its coverage of a job fair in New Taipei City (新北市) on Labor Day.

In the coverage, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was seen visiting the job fair hosted by the Council of Labor Affairs on Sunday and stopping at a booth for restaurant Din Tai Fung. Ma then pleads for a job at the restaurant on behalf of a “job applicant” visiting the booth.

However, the SET-TV reporter later discovered that the “applicant” was already an employee at Din Tai Fung.

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