President Chen Shui-bian on Monday, November 1, 2005 received a delegation representing members of the Taiwanese American CPA Association from the United States. Addressing the association, Chen reaffirmed the extremely important role the association plays in economic liberalization. He said that the primary responsibility of accountants is to utilize their expertise to carry out impartial and objective examination of financial statements and to loyally reflect the financial activities of companies as well as the results of these companies' business activities, thereby providing business people, investors, lenders and creditors information on operations, investment and credit systems that serve as a conduit as they make strategic business, investment, and credit decisions, helping the people fulfill their duties to pay taxes and stabilizing the national tax collection process.
Chen also directed his attention to the recent TVBS incident, making four points to shore up his commitment to freedom of the press:
1. Everyone is responsible for upholding the law, and the media is no exception. Those who are not in compliance with laws governing the capital structure of firms or engage in tax evasion must be willing to accept being investigated, and to provide an explanation of their actions, and be subject to any subsequent legal action.
2. All punishment must be in proportion to crimes committed, in some cases those found guilty may be required to make amends, in some cases the guilty may be asked to improve practices. Some may be required to pay a heavy fine or be subject to some other form of administrative punishment. To close down a media organization is an extremely serious matter. Because Taiwan is a democratic country, it would never easily close down a television station or newspaper and a president who wishes Taiwan to be democratic, would be even less likely to allow a television station to be shut down under his or her administration.
3. To defend press freedom is an extremely important part of Taiwan's transformation from authoritarianism to democracy. Any report or commentary released by a media organization may contain whatever speculation the author wishes, but the author of the conjecture must carefully check the facts beforehand. If a fraudulent or inaccurate claim is made, the government should not use its power to interfere, but market decisions should prevail, allowing instead the end users of media to use their own judgment.
4. The media is a mirror held up before the government and the president. I offer my deepest thanks to the media for sparking public debate and for offering criticism and direction to the government and me. I vow to make changes as the necessity arises and to be careful to ward off the possibility of making oversights in the future.