While good journalistic practice has conventionally meant avoiding becoming part of the news story, in the war against disinformation, journalists find themselves fighting in the trenches, and an integral part of the story themselves. This is part of a “global awakening to the realities of contact with Beijing.”“Taiwan obviously is a special case because of Beijing’s ambitions to annex it,” Cole, a former Taipei Times deputy news editor, added. Such tactics have made it even trickier for the government to balance protecting freedom of expression and clamping down effectively on disinformation. “If Taiwan were not a democracy, it would be quite easy for the government to come up with the solutions,” Cole said. “The last thing that you want to do is go down a road where you start curtailing freedom of expression.

Source: Taipei Times December 25, 2019 15:56 UTC