• by IPS Correspondents (taipei)
• Thursday, December 15, 1994
• Inter Press Service

TAIPEI, Dic 15 (IPS) - Inching his way through one of Taipei's frequent traffic jams, taxi driver Lin Yi-chi switches on the radio and listens intently to the latest twists and turns in Taiwanese politics as seen by the island's most popular radio station.

Lin is only one among the thousands of working-class Taiwanese who swear by the Voice of Taiwan, a pirate broadcaster that is helping reshape the political agenda in Taiwan.

"Voice of Taiwan is the voice of the working man," says Lin. "Voice of Taiwan, number one."

For years, the Taiwanese media had been tightly controlled and even partially owned by the Kuomintang (KMT), which has ruled Taiwan since General Chiang Kai-shek and his army fled the mainland following the communist victory there in 1949.

But with Taiwan's democratic opening in recent years, local media have flexed their new freedom to debate the island's political future and its delicate relations with China.

The government lifted a ban on private radio stations in 1993, and is considering a flood of new applications for new radio and cable televisions stations that will probably weaken the official monopoly in a year, government officials say.

Still, many broadcasters are choosing not to get licences, revelling in their 'rebel' status and helping spread the message of the opposition while appealing to an emerging Taiwanese national identity that is challenging the mainland's claim on the island.

Media observers estimate that there are more than 40 illegal radio stations in Taiwan as well as more than 300 newspapers and 300 cable television stations.

All these were a noisy part of the run-up to the local polls held earlier this month that saw the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) clinch the influential mayor's seat in Taipei, although it lost out badly in the Taiwan governor's race and mayoral contest in Kaohsiung, the island's second largest city.

But radio in particular is predicted to raise more ruckus for the opposition as the 1996 Taiwanese presidential election nears. This is obviously worrying the government, which has witnessed the clout the Voice of Taiwan has among the working class.

In February, for example, the feisty station's founder Hsu Rong- chi mobilised Taipei's 40,000 taxi drivers into a disruptive protest against high insurance premiums.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement