Taipei, April 12 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian claimed Monday that the disputes over his re-election victory are related to flawed reporting by some electronic news media during the vote-counting procedure.
Chen made the remarks while meeting with Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, who is currently on a speaking tour of Taiwan.
In addition to offering his congratulations on Columbia's 250th founding university, Chen exchanged views with Bollinger on freedom of the press and media responsibility. Bollinger will deliver a speech on challenges and opportunities for news media in the era of globalization during his Taipei visit.
Chen told his guest that Taiwan still has much to learn in terms of upgrading the news media's sense of moral responsibility while defending press freedom.
Taking the disputed March 20 presidential election as an example, Chen said some cable television stations reported too hastily on vote tabulation in order to attract audiences amid the fierce ratings competition. "Some of them didn't base their reports on the ballots actually tallied by the Central Election Commission (CEC) and instead based their reports on the results of exit polls they conducted. Because those exit polls were not correct, their vote-counting reports failed to reflect the CEC's actual tabulation, thus misleading the audience and opposition politicians," Chen said.
Chen also said he hopes Columbia will continue its cooperative research projects to with local academic bodies, including those aimed at upgrading media professionalism and moral responsibility.