Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) A media watch group focusing on media reform with a priority on Taiwanese identity has been established and it will soon launch an attack on mainstream media to encourage accurate and fair news reporting, organizers said Thursday.
The society, which has not been given an English name, is a coalition of former journalists and political commentators and will officially announce its establishment Saturday.
Falsification and human rights abuse within journalism will be two issues the group will be keeping an eye on at all times, said group director Chung Nian-huang, an ex-reporter with a 15-year career.
"We want to make clear that people not only have the right to know but also the right not to know. And people have the right to say `no' to sensationalist news reporting as well, " Chung said, pinpointing the biggest complaints about the sorry state of Taiwan's media.
Chen Li-hung, deputy director of the group, also stressed that Taiwanese identity will be one of the main focuses of the group, which opposes the current media trend of tilting toward China.
"We're not trying to be an enemy of the media. We are trying to bring journalism back to where it is supposed to be, " Chung said.
Among the founding members of the group are former journalists Huang Kuan-chin, Hsu Chi-chih, Hsieh San-tai and political commentators Chin hen-wei and Paul Lin.