Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taipei City and the four special municipalities that came into being on Saturday could turn into a disaster for the central and local governments if underlying financial problems are not properly addressed, experts told a forum on the financial aspects of the five megacities yesterday.

Peng Pai-hsien (彭百顯), a professor of finance at Kainan University, told a panel organized by the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank in Taipei that the five special municipalities face an immediate shortfall of NT$718.5 billion (US$24.27 billion) — which would climb to NT$803.4 billion if potential debt were counted — while the central government was faring no better, with a potential debt of NT$21 trillion.

Over the past year, there have been many moves to push a draft law aimed at protecting the welfare and interests of children and youths. Strong opinions both for and against this law have focused on technical issues related to how news-gathering agencies should appropriately handle reporting crimes. It should be possible to find a balance to avoid media sensationalism that the public finds unacceptable and, given journalistic self-regulation, legislation, market demands and other controls that are already in place, this shouldn’t be very difficult to achieve.

However, taking a look at the details of the draft law, it is worrying to see that it includes articles about what newspapers can print. This is tantamount to bringing the Publishing Act (出版法), which was scrapped years ago, back to life. This would deal a huge blow to Taiwan’s press freedom and its democracy.