Media changes in Taiwan

The media in Taiwan had changed, but as compared to China, these changes had revealed the potential influence of deliberate elite-led political reforms that are shaping Taiwan into a modern democratic society. Despite the tight political associations with the mainland of China, the media in Taiwan still enjoy full professional autonomy from state interference, and have the opportunity to scrutinize and challenge political power without the threat of political reprisal common in authoritarian Taiwan (Gary D. 2001). This supports the case of Apple Daily, whereby the public sphere itself is regarded as a specific domain, which shows as the public domain versus the political domain. The reason is the owner of Apple Daily, Lai, is against the ruling Nationalist Party (Kuo Min Tang) so even though Habermas’s public sphere stated that it helps to boost an island’s political system to achieve media consolidation of democracy, sometimes the public appears to be opposed to the authorities.