'If you don’t study, you’ll become a journalist': Has Taiwan lost faith in its media?

Journalism is under attack. Trust in the profession is falling, while threats of physical violence and online abuse against media workers, sometimes encouraged by political leaders, are growing.

None of this is news to Taiwan’s journalists, however.

A famous Taiwanese saying goes, “If you don’t study when you’re young, you’ll grow up to be a journalist.” On the surface, it mocks reporters, poking fun at the perceived absurdity and over-the-top antics of local TV journalists. But its ubiquity is also symptomatic of widespread public distrust in Taiwan’s media.

French media freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) notes that Taiwanese trust in media is among the lowest among democracies, scoring second to last in the Asia-Pacific region with just 33 percent in the 2024 Reuters Institute Digital News Report—a figure that dropped three points in 2025.

Some believe Taiwan’s crisis of media faith has been brewing for decades.

Chaos

In a University of Nottingham article, Professor Ti Wei (魏玓) of Taiwan's National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University wrote that the country's media struggled to navigate newfound freedom after martial law ended in 1987.

After fleeing to Taiwan following defeat by China’s Communist Party, the Kuomintang imposed martial law from 1949 to 1987. During that period, press restrictions were strict: only a few vetted outlets could operate, relying on the KMT-run Central News Agency, effectively suppressing press freedom.

Ti noted that the term “Media Chaos” (媒體亂象) emerged in Taiwan to describe the low-quality, often sensationalist content broadcast by newly established 24-hour cable channels after press bans were lifted in 1988. The sudden freedoms, combined with the absence of an independent press regulator—which came years later with the National Communications Commission (NCC)—turned Taiwan’s media sector into a “brutally competitive market jungle,” he added.

Glory days

Taiwan’s media once wielded enormous influence,” said Yu Fang Liang (梁玉芳), editorial managing director of Taiwan's investigative outlet The Reporter. A veteran journalist who worked for UDN during martial law, Liang told TCN she recalled the reach and power newspapers once held:

“The government controlled the number of media outlets, and only three newspapers were licensed. Circulation was enormous—around a million copies per paper. Now? I’m not sure if newspapers even have 100,000.”

She recalled a story about a child with severe burns discriminated against at McDonald’s: “Because of that article, we received NT$20 million in donations.”

What changed?

Taiwan's Public Television Service (PTS) reported that between 2010 and 2017, local traditional TV and print news outlets lost around NT$17 billion (approximately US$541 million) in advertising revenue to online platforms, including Facebook and Google. This shift prompted legacy media to focus on sensationalist stories in an effort to recoup losses, the report noted.

The next shakeup occurred in 2003, when Apple Daily, a tabloid founded by Hong Kong media magnate Jimmy Lai (黎智英) and part of Next Digital Limited, made its debut in Taiwan.

Apple Daily earned a reputation in Taiwan for sensational, often graphic reporting that pushed local journalistic boundaries. “They broke all the no-sensationalism rules. They brought Hong Kong’s model—using corpses and nudity as selling points,” Liang said of the now-shuttered media outlet. 

Vulnerable

Ti argued that Taiwan’s media, unsettled by the sudden shift to a liberalized market, began imitating Apple Daily’s sensationalist reporting style:

“That partially explains why Taiwanese media were so anxious and vulnerable when they faced the Next Media competition, which landed in Taiwan from Hong Kong after 2000. Most local media could only copy the model awkwardly.”

Apple Daily is also remembered for investigative journalism and defending democratic rights in Hong Kong, winning numerous awards. RSF honored Lai for founding “one of the few Hong Kong media outlets that still dares to openly criticize the Chinese regime.”

Apple Daily shut down in 2021 after pressure from Hong Kong authorities, including asset freezes, amid a crackdown on pro-democracy media. 

Lai has been in custody since his 2020 arrest under Hong Kong’s National Security Law. In December 2025, he was convicted on charges including collusion and sedition and could face life in prison. Observers widely view the charges as politically motivated.

Censorship and power politics

Apple Daily is not the only organization criticized over reporting standards in Taiwan. In 2024, PTS’s English-language channel Taiwan Plus altered a report on Trump’s election victory in which a correspondent referred to then President-elect as a convicted felon. RSF condemned the broadcaster's interference with editorial independence to appease diplomatic relations.

Cédric Alviani, RSF’s Taiwan director, told TCN that government attention amplified the controversy. "Had nobody cried out, nobody would have noticed. But when the government drew attention, it became a story," he said.

Alviani also highlighted the dominance of a few conglomerates in Taiwan’s mainstream media, which utilize these outlets to promote their business interests and influence politics. He pointed to the NCC’s refusal to renew the license of pro-China TV channel Zhong Tian as an example:

“This refusal did not necessarily go against press freedom; the public interest is in receiving quality media content, not propaganda. But we would expect the same scrutiny for pro-blue and pro-green outlets, because almost every mainstream outlet manipulates headlines to support a political camp, sometimes omitting embarrassing facts. It’s honest to display a political orientation, but facts should never be forgotten or distorted.”

In Taiwan, "green" and "blue" are terms used to describe the two main political camps, with "green" referring to parties like the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that support a Taiwan-centric identity and cautious relations with China. "Blue" refers to parties such as the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which advocate for closer ties and cooperation with China.

China claims self-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary.

“If you don’t study when you’re young, you’ll grow up to be a journalist”

“This phrase started circulating after the rise of TV news,” Liang estimates, describing exaggerated reporting during storms: “Reporters purposely stand in strong winds and rain, almost being blown away, or step into deep puddles. Search online for ‘Taiwan silly reporters,’ and you’ll find those clips.”

A search for the phrase online yields countless examples of Taiwanese netizens mocking the perceived quirks of local TV news reporting.

One example involved a reporter from Taiwan’s SET News demonstrating the strength of the wind during a storm by holding a snapped fried dough stick out of a moving car window.

Liang noted that print journalists are also targeted by the phrase:

“When The Reporter first opened its office, someone wrote in the elevator, ‘If you don’t study when you’re young, you’ll grow up to be a journalist.’ Sometimes, colleagues avoid telling taxi drivers they’re journalists to dodge complaints.”

A TV reporter's view

Lena Chan (詹千雁), a former TV reporter with EBC and SET News, now working as a real estate influencer, shared similar views:

“Taiwan has a very high density of TV stations for a small island. Commercial TV stations must make money, so editorial decisions—what news to cover, political vs. social coverage—are influenced by profit. The intense 24-hour competition encourages sensationalism. Audiences sometimes perceive news as exaggerated, but that’s the commercial environment, not necessarily the individual journalists’ fault. Mistakes happen in every industry, but the internet amplifies them, so the public generalizes and distrusts journalists,” Chan told TCN.

Everyone’s a journalist

Chan pointed to social media and citizen journalism as another blow to media credibility:

“Anyone can start a site and call themselves a journalist, without accuracy guarantees. Taiwan is free and democratic, so everyone can speak freely, but trained journalists understand regulations and social impact. We don’t report suicides to prevent copycat behavior, and some criminal cases are withheld to protect investigations. Untrained real-time reporting can affect criminal investigations. Mainstream journalists remain necessary to ensure professionalism.”

Under-regulation

“Mainstream media like cable TV are regulated by the NCC. Online media exist in a gray area. People argue, ‘I have freedom of speech, why can’t I report?’ But major incidents still require trained journalists. Their work is subject to regulation, even if online media is less controlled.”

“In June 2022, Taiwan’s NCC proposed the Digital Intermediary Services Act (DISA), modeled on the EU Digital Services Act, to increase transparency and accountability for social media. The draft sparked debate over free speech; critics feared curbs on expression, and supporters argued for platform accountability. The draft was withdrawn before reaching the legislature.”

Challenges

Salary stagnation is a major issue, Chan said. Fewer people want to become reporters; fresh graduates earn around NT$30,000 per month.

“When I graduated ten years ago, I earned NT$30,000. Now, it’s the same. We work overtime to get exclusives and check surveillance footage, but pay doesn’t match effort.”

Liang from The Reporter added that the internet caused print media to lose revenue and lay off staff:

“Good people left. Without good pay, you can’t attract strong talent. Media is brain-intensive; without brains, you don’t get good content. People watch YouTube for free, so ad revenue drops. Entry-level TV reporters in Taipei can barely survive, and newspapers don’t pay a lot either. Even respectable media rely on clickbait for views because traffic and ads fund their business. Google and AI searches directing answers to users is another blow. The Reporter relies on donations, which may be more sustainable in the AI era.”

Between 2014 and 2024, journalists’ salaries in Taiwan fell by 4.1%, while earnings in other major professions increased over the same period.

A little respect

Chan also cited a lack of respect for journalists:

“Society no longer respects journalists as it did before. Anchors and newspapers were once trusted; now, everything is questioned. A journalist’s greatest value is fact-checking. We can verify information that the public cannot. That value should be strengthened, not diluted by echoing netizens.”

Getting the facts straight

RSF’s Alviani shared Chan’s view on the importance of fact-checking capabilities in the face of disinformation campaigns targeting the island:

“There is no doubt that Taiwan is under attack. But I would say this information does not only come from China. A lot of this information comes from Taiwanese forces, political forces, who are fighting, and some of them might use some Chinese disinformation whenever convenient for them.”

It all goes back to the Taiwanese media environment, Alviani said.  "Because of political polarization, because of sensationalistic bidding, because of the decaying revenue, because the internet platforms like social media platforms have pumped all the advertising revenue, like resources, Google, and Facebook. So now it's harder and harder even for mainstream media outlets to get revenue," he added.

“Journalistic ethics are not a major concern for these media outlets. And the problem is, they want to work fast. They want their journalists to work fast, they want them to produce a lot, they do not give them the time to verify information, and at the point, they might even not care about it, because if a news appears to be in line with the political affiliation of the media outlet, they will be so happy to broadcast it.

“The risk is that the Taiwanese media outlet could amplify disinformation, willingly or unwillingly. It happened in the past. In one of our past reports, we were using the example of that Taiwanese diplomat in Osaka, who was actually the target of a disinformation and hate campaign and who ended up committing suicide.

“While the information about the Taiwanese people being left alone during the typhoon was absolutely wrong, that was total fake news, and it led to a suicide. Taiwanese media outlets had their part of responsibility in that harassment and in this suicide.”

Taiwanese diplomat Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠) faced a wave of misinformation and online harassment over Taiwan’s response to Typhoon Jebi in 2018. Some observers have suggested that the intense online pressure may have contributed to his death.

Hope

Despite the challenges facing Taiwan’s media environment, The Reporter’s Yu Fang Liang sees promise in a new generation of committed journalists.

“Today is a special day,” Liang said, referring to the Golden Tripod News Awards, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Pulitzer, held on the day she spoke to TCN.

“It’s seeing so many young journalists—despite low pay and reduced influence—still reporting on Taiwan and international issues. Some go to Palestine, Syria, and Ukraine; some cover floods in Bangladesh; some report on transgender youth in Taiwan. Seeing that, I feel the industry still has hope.”

“I am very fond of an essay by the Hong Kong writer Dong Qiao (董橋), 'It Is Time to Light the Lamp in One’s Heart,' which reflects on journalism,” she said.

“This is an industry full of hope, and also an industry of despair; an elegant industry, and also a vulgar one; a sincere industry, and also a hypocritical one; an industry in which the torch of tradition is difficult to pass on, yet must be carried forward,” Dong wrote.

“Today I remember how much I love being a journalist. As García Márquez once said, journalism truly is the best profession in the world,” she added.