Today, news about the New Taipei City Banqiao Kindergarten Poisoning Case suddenly became a hot topic, with accusations of Hou Yu-ih suppressing the news. It served as a beacon of salvation for the green-brains, supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), amidst the recent series of sexual harassment scandals within the DPP.
They vehemently questioned why mainstream media had not reported on the case, and even spread political conspiracy theories, suggesting that Hou Yu-ih had paid to pressure the media not to report.
These are truly reasons that a green-brain”s intelligence would come up with. Unfortunately, they completely overlook the victims who sacrificed their gender equality rights in their own backyard for the sake of “Grand Ju is paramount” (a pun referring to Chen Chu, former Kaohsiung mayor and Presidential Office Secretary-General, implying sacrificing individuals for a larger political figure).
In reality, we must understand an important fact: in Taiwan”s media environment, any subject that can generate high click-through rates will undoubtedly be relentlessly crammed into everyone”s sight by the media, until people are dizzy and sick of it.
Some netizens, using typical conspiracy theory tactics, accused specific blue-camp media of not reporting on the Banqiao kindergarten poisoning case and claimed it was a political conspiracy. However, the truth is, if the media had a chance to report, they would have done so long ago.
So, why didn”t they report it? There are two reasons:
1. Restrictions of Article 69 of the Child and Youth Welfare Act and the iwin Organization
First, Article 69 of the Child and Youth Welfare Act has clear restrictions on revealing information related to the identity of child victims.
Smart netizens might ask, why not report the names of the kindergarten director and teachers? However, reporting adult-related information can easily lead to identifying the kindergarten, which is quite dangerous in this era of modern human flesh searching.
Equally smart netizens might suggest that the media report it, saying there would be no problem. But I”m sorry, such an approach does have consequences. An organization called iwin frequently issues warnings to the media, threatening fines and demanding meetings. Perhaps everyone remembers that when Huang Jia-qian and Chris Downs divorced, the media could only report on “family members” but not mention their “daughter.” This was precisely because the media had been warned by iwin. Do you think Chris Downs could casually suppress the news?
2. Strict Regulations of Social Platforms like Facebook
Second, Facebook”s community guidelines are equally strict. Facebook”s regulations on child-related content are even stricter than Taiwan”s Child and Youth Welfare Act.
Today, I saw someone compiling statistics on which media fan pages did not post this news.
But, Rivendell, it”s already 2023. I hope the media literacy of Taiwanese islanders can move beyond this level, where everything is a knee-jerk reaction attributed to politicians suppressing news.
How easy it is to gain traffic from child abuse cases, just look at Baoliao Commune (a popular Taiwanese online forum for whistleblowers). Let me repeat, if it can generate traffic, Taiwanese media will write about it until you”re sick of it.
Why didn”t the media post on their fan pages? This is because Facebook”s community guidelines prohibit posting any content related to harming children. Posting such content could lead to severe consequences, even the disappearance of the entire fan page. Which media outlet is willing to take such a risk?
If you want to see child abuse cases continuously reported in the news, here are three things more practical and effective than yelling at the media on Facebook:
- Contact the legislator in your area and demand amendment of Article 69 of the Child and Youth Welfare Act.
- Call iwin”s phone number (02-2577-5118) and ask them to stop interfering.
- Call Mark Zuckerberg”s phone number and ask him to stop intervening.
These are suggestions for those aspiring individuals for whom “when a person turns green-brained, they become stupid.”
If you just want to criticize the media, there are many other areas you can point fingers at, but for today”s news, we shouldn”t wrongly accuse them… However, I know DPP supporters will still blindly accuse Hou Yu-ih of suppressing the news, after all, green-brain is synonymous with stupidity.