Global press should tell whole story of elections

[dArKeR]

By Ping Lu

Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004,Page 8

Around the time of the presidential election, members of the international media congregated in Taiwan, and their dispatches made headline news on international news channels such as CNN and the BBC. This displayed Taiwan's democratic situation for the whole world to see, warts and all.

TV cameras want blood, and journalists always look for the most exciting angle, so riot police were frequently seen. The night scenery on Ketagalan Boulevard against the backdrop of a line of shields warding off protesters in front of the Presidential Office offers a further associative framework. Close physical encounters in front of close-up cameras showing people being dragged or carried away leave Taiwan's young and inexperienced democracy lying naked on a stretcher.

In contrast to visual media, words leave room for reasoning. Chinese-language publications sometimes include articles exploring the presidential election, the ensuing developments within the political parties, the generational change and ethnic relations from the perspective of deepening democracy. Foreign English-language media also provide intermittent objective appraisals of democracy in Taiwan. The South China Morning Post, for example, wrote March 30 that "Fortunately, law and order has been maintained even as the controversy drags on. This speaks volumes about the maturity of Taiwanese society and the restraint of the citizen."

There was no obvious electoral fraud, according to "Twisting the logic of democracy," by Joseph Chang (???) in the same newspaper. This article aimed at those who saw the post-election chaos as a negative result of democracy, Chang, a City University of Hong Kong professor, wrote, "Thousands of election monitors and journalists witnessed the elections, with no credible allegations of fraud having surfaced." He disputed the negative interpretations, saying that the minuscule difference following Taiwan's fierce election campaign would have led to bloodshed had it not been for the democratic mechanism.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/04/14/2003136628

Oh where Oh where is Mikie 'Whore' Chinoy
Oh where Oh where can he be?
I've looked and looked all over the Commi Pimp Land
But I could only find him in Bejing taking a bribe from Hu Jintao