CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.2 Two Online Media Camps Represent Civic Activism & DQ Case
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
It is undeniable that the civil protection bill, which has not been approved and the cybersecurity bill 24 which was just approved recently must have impact on the current ecology of the media. Those regulations seem to restraining the media’s autonomy which could undermine the freedom of expression and the people’s right to know. Such uncertain changes will also influence the development of the online media although there is no tailor-made regulation for this sector yet.
Overall, two pro-democracy media have their fragile sides and the growing influence of pro-establishment online media must have an impact on them, but inevitably they may also reshape the landscape of local online media – once the pro-establishment media camp grows, the question is whether the alternative media or voices will still be heard if Facebook remains their main platform in which its algorithm system providing designed contents is shown to their readers based how much is invested. Meanwhile, the government does not seem to be stopping the influence on the media.
4.2 TWO ONLINE MEDIA CAMPS REPRESENT CIVIC ACTIVISM & DQ
CASE
In this part, I shall discuss the first research question. Before analysing the chosen posts, I shall give numbers to show an honest but general perception of how the four online media dealt with the three incidents and their related social actions.
Compared with the pro- establishment camp, the pro-democracy camp – All About Macau and Macau Concealers have covered the events in great detail, both in quality and quantity. The pro-establishment camp – True. Love Macao and UTV – either covered the three incidents either very little or nothing at all. See table 4.1
24 The cybersecurity bill, approved in October, suggested that the real-name must be used by those who bought prepaid cards mobile phone sim cards and the judiciary officers have the right to search broadcasters’ offices. Local media groups have expressed concerns about such suggestions.
‧
TABLE 4.1TIMES THE FOUR MEDIA OUTLETS REPORTED THE TWO INCIDENTS
&DQ CASE
Pro-establishment True. Love Macao did not publish anything at all about the anti-perks demonstration although its Facebook page was created in 2004 but it was more active in 2014. Regarding the incident in relation to the government’s donation of 100 million yuan (estimated TWD 480.4 million or 123 million patacas) to Jinan University, it just published one post on an official statement elaborating the reasons why the government decided to donate the money. For the DQ case, it published a total of five posts in the five days, one was about Sou being suspended, two were to share two links to the live broadcast of Sou being suspended, one is a video titled “lawmaker violates law and must be punished like an ordinary person” and an article titled the same.
Obviously, this pro-establishment media directed its attention to Sou which could be a reaction to the rise of the youngest lawmaker which has alarmed the pro-establishment camp.
Another pro-establishment group UTV also published very few posts about the three incidents and their related actions. Since its Facebook page was just set up in 2015 it therefore did not cover the 2014’s anti perks-bill case and its protests. However, regarding the other two hot button issues it did not cover much about them either. It did not release any posts about the donation incident and for the DQ case it just released one post in which it shared Macao Cable TV’s live broadcast about Sou being
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
The original design mentioned in Chapter 3 that discourse analysis will be applied and terms such as “Citizens (公民), citizen (市民)，residents (居民）, “Citizen awakening (公民覺醒)” “Macau people (澳門人)” were supposedly chosen to compare how the two media camps presented in their articles about the three incidents.
However, due to the fact that the two pro-establishment media outlets had released very few posts and most of their posts were related to the DQ case thus I shall mainly use this case to compare how these terms were being used in the posts released over five days –13 and 14 November and 3 and 4 December 2017 and 29 May 2018, five key days of the case and how these two camps reported the DQ case differently.
The Chinese terms “市民” and “公民” both can be translated into “citizen”.
Considering the concept of Citizen (公民) has been given various implications thus I use the term “Citizen” with capital letter “C” to present this idea while term “citizen”
(市民) with small letter “c” to refer people who live in the city. In following two sections of this chapter, these two terms were used in specific context.
I shall also discuss how these two pro-democracy media outlets use the terms
“Citizen awakening, “Citizens”, “citizen” and “Macau people” and see whether there were any differences when they represented the two incidents, namely the-perks bill in 2014 and the donation to Jinan University in 2016.
While reporting the DQ case, the pro-establishment media camp stressed “the rule of law” and penalties while their rival media camp accentuates the terms such as
“citizens” and “civil rights” and their posts focused more on citizens’ rights and freedom.
4.2.1 PRO-ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA CAMP: RULE BY LAW
In reporting the DQ case, the two pro-establishment media outlets have never used the terms “Citizens” and “civil rights” instead emphasising that those who exercised civil rights – participating in a protest or assembly –might face penalties as they did not obey the police order.
In the post released on 13 November 2017 titled “lawmaker violates law must be punished like an ordinary person” by True. Love Macao in which this pro-establishment media outlet explained why Sou faced DQ and what he had done during the protest in 2016 against the government’s donation decision.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Sou and his fellow activist Chiang had been charged for violating the law for having an assembly outside the residence of the Chief Executive Chui Sai On after the end of the protest on 15 May. They threw paper planes into Chui’s garden as they wanted to make sure that the chief executive received their appeal directly during the assembly. The activists had told the public about the assembly in advance.
This pro-establishment media outlet stated that Sou had led protestors to occupy the road and “severely” affected the traffic during the protest. The media also said that Sou had “incited” protestors to proceed to the chief executive’s residence.
“Sou ignored the warning of [possibly] being charged for aggravated disobedience…… Macau is a place which values the rule of law and if there are no rules everything can be done. Regardless of being a privileged lawmaker or ordinary people they have to be treated without bias if as they violate law. In other words, the behaviour of the people including Sou extremely violated the critical component of the law”.
True. Love. Macau also said,
“If lawmaker does not need to shoulder the responsibility for breaking the law causally even including those illegal acts before becoming a lawmaker, [it is] believed that many criminals choose not to run away but instead would stand for election. Such acts really trample on social justice and the rule of law. It is unreasonable that a lawmaker who broke law is not prosecuted because of “claiming” oneself being persecuted.
Lawmakers should have higher ethical standards, be role models and obey the law”.
On 14 November, this pro-establishment media outlet only released a two-minute 35 second video titled “story about lawmaker violating law must be punished like an ordinary person”.
Apparently, this pro-establishment media presumed Sou and other activists that took part in the protest had broken the law and they should face punishment for breaking law. This media also stressed the rule of law is important and everyone must obey the law with no exceptions. In the sense of this pro-establishment media outlet, to obey law should be the biggest priority than anything including citizens’ ability to exercise their rights and freedoms. There was the implication that exercising civil rights could lead to facing criminal charges.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
However, the other pro-establishment media UTV did not released any posts over the two days.
These two media outlets did not report anything about Sou on 3 December although there was an gathering organised to support Sou that night as the Legislative Assembly would vote whether Sou should be suspended the next day. They pro-establishment media between them on only released five posts in total – one from UTV and four from True. Love Macao and all were on 4 December. UTV only shared a link to the live broadcast of the Legislative Assembly voting while True. Love Macao shared two links of the live broadcast of the vote and a post in which stated that Sou was suspended from the Legislature.
On 29 May 2018 the day the court ruled on Sou’s case neither of the media outlets uploaded any posts.
4.2.2 PRO-DEMOCRACY ONLINE MEDIA CAMP: CITIZENS/citizens (公民／市民) & MACAU PEOPLE （澳門人）
On 13 and 14 November 2017, only the pro-democracy All About Macau released two related posts about the Sou case. One post on 13 November – stated that Sou complained that the police had abused their power and restricted and infringed citizens’
rights which are enshrined in Macau Basic Law. The activist also said that what they had done was in line with the law and they had the right to express their opinions about the issue as it involved significant public interest.
This media stressed that what the activists had done was in accordance with the citizens’ rights and was aimed at protecting public interest. In other words, the exercising of civil rights must be ensured. In this sense, citizens seem to be empowered.
Among the posts related to the Sou case released on 3 and 4 December 2017, one was a video released by Macau Concealers titled “Support Sou, Safeguard Legislative Assembly” – we stand by Sou.”
While the other pro-democracy media outlet All About Macau told its readers in its post about the assembly supporting Sou on 4 December said,
“……citizens: opposing political suppression, he is also Macau people.
Sou is elected by citizens”.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
In this post, it was stated that citizens are given the right to vote and had elected their representative in the Legislative Assembly.
In another post about the supporting assembly, this media also stated
“Macau people are the masters of Macau.” This media also uploaded a post on 4 December after Sou was suspended in which it said,
“Macau people (澳門人) should not feel depressed instead of becoming angry they strive drive to push Macau towards progress”.
Among the posts about Sou’s case released on 29 May 2018, the day the court ruled on the case, one by All About Macau said that Sou worried about residents’ basic rights being limited while a post on Macau Concealers stated “Citizens’ rights are facing crisis; Citizens’ rights and freedom, and Citizens’ space is further restricted.”
Those posts by the pro-democracy camp implied that Macau people are the masters of the city and they are also citizens and voters who are empowered to protect their rights and the interests of the city. The term “Macau people” was often used by the pro-democracy media camp, has the term been used by the media to construct a collective identity so that it may become a force for unification? Once a collective identity and unification are formed, inevitably their impact on collective actions is undeniable and that needs to be examined. Moreover, the concept of “Macau people”
is vague, which can not only be legal status but it can be also constructed by appealing to people’s emotions. The various names for Macau people used in the posts revealed the different topics being addressed and appealed for.
Posts such as “Macau people, stand up, fighting”, “Macau people significantly become more confident, more powerful, and being honest in fighting for personal and public interests.” “Macau people should ……contribute to the effort to change Macau.”
The future of Macau society should be in the hands of Macau people again”. “Macau people created history with this citizen’s movement”.
To the pro-democracy camp, the term “Macau people” has changed from “being quiet” to “being vocal” and they have been empowered to protect their interests and the future of Macau society. Meanwhile this term has also been used as a symbol to bring people together in the fight for change.
When analysing the posts from the pro-democracy media camp, the phrase
“Macau people” was also found to be connected with “Citizens”/citizens (公民/市民), residents (居民), voters (選民) and even tax payers (納稅人). However, those terms
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
found in the posts were for corresponding issues or targets. In depicting the protests in 2014, the term “Citizen” and “citizen” were often used and stressed and they were interchanged while the term “Citizen awakening” had been often seen. However, in reporting the 2016’s protest, the term “Citizen” had been used relatively less and stressed while another concept “Citizen awakening” was not seen. Meanwhile the terms
“citizen” and “resident” were found to have been used more frequently.
A post on 28 May 2014 by All About Macau said:
“Macau people created history with local civil movement ……after the protest on 25 May Macau people have become confident, powerful and peaceful in fighting for their rights and public interest. …… From the scenes of the protests on 25 and 27 May, citizens woke up and a mature civil power was seen. The network for civil society was formed. The small masters will bring the ruling group to account if it fails to correct its mistakes. Another post by the media on 29 May 2014 “People are power;
citizen waking up is power…Thank you everyone [protestors] for safeguarding Macau”.
The term “Citizen” was found to be connected with civil rights, civic consciousness, civil education, civil society and civil actions or movements. Posts stated “Citizens speak out for the unjust and being awoken”, “Citizen awakening is power”, “today is a milestone for civil society” and “today’s action to express public opinion is the victory for Citizens.”
However，the term “Macau citizens” was found in relation to various issues, such as one post stating “so many citizens express their opinion in such hot weather, the public opinion must not be ignored”, “many citizens are discontented and hope to express their dissatisfaction about social injustice”.
In reporting the two protests in 2014, Macau Concealers often stressed Macau people had been woken up. Macau people have power to protect their rights and they would not keep silent when facing injustice. One post on 23 May by this pro-democracy media to urge local people to take part in protest on 25 May said:
“This Sunday, let the power of Macau people be shown in Tap Seac Square……. Apart from expressing opinions on the Internet Macau citizens should also take action. In terms of political affairs [you] should not ask others to represent you, the more people that show up the bigger
‧
the power and the higher probability for success. Regarding this incident, [we] beg the public to understand: It is the source of evil in the government is the product of a small circle and the non-democratic electoral system. If we do not wake up and face this evil or fight for universal suffrage, even worse than this incident will happen. We have not kept silent about political reform 25 and in the legislative election (in 2013) we were slow on the uptake. Are we going to wake up today to face down the ridiculous perks bill? How about facing them down when Chief Executive Chui Sai On seeks re-election? We believe the younger generation of Macau people know what to do. Macau Concealers hereby sincerely appeal each reader to show the power of Macau people at 2:30 p.m., on 25 May to do what we should”.
On 27 May 2014 another two posts stated “Thank you all! Macau people have awakened”, “Awakened Macau people! All of you that were outside the Legislative Assembly! please click like!”
Obviously, to the pro-democracy camp the use the term of “Citizen” seems to give power and rights or empowers people to carry out actions to safeguard their interests or fight against what is perceived as unjust. When the term “Citizen” is used meaning that local people should take action to fight for values., to some extent, it is interchanged but the latter to place emphasise on rights and actions.
The term “resident” is found to be used in relation to the livelihood problems such as housing and traffic while voters have connected with the reform of the legislative council and local political system. The term taxpayer has been seldom used and it connected with the public purse.
All About Macau released a post on 20 May 2016 saying:
“A small group of people suddenly seem to have been ‘possessed by spirits’
and deviated from the original protest route and ‘rushed up the road’,
25. In 2012, the government launched a public consultation to collect views from the general public on how to amend the electoral laws of Chief Executive and Legislative Assembly. The conservative opinion was an overwhelming over those calling for democratic elections. Then lawmakers passed amendments to add two more directly-elected seats making 14 in total while two more indirectly-directly-elected seats were added making12 in total and the seven appointed by the chief executive remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, the number of eligible people to vote for the chief executive increased from 300 to 400.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
attempting to cause trouble and block the traffic, ‘making a farce of things as they often do’ affecting residents by hanging around”.
This media released another post on 10 May 2016 saying:
“Public money belongs to all 640,000 residents……but it seems it is becoming the private property of the top-ranking officials”.
In interpreting the protest in 2016 the term “Citizen awakening” is not found and the term “citizen” is replaced “Citizen” being often used in connection with fight for rights. A post on 12 May 2016 by All About Macau stated “the government should respect the citizens’ right of expression and assembly;” while another post on 12 May 2016 stated “citizens need to have an awareness to supervise …change current corrupt system.” At the same time, the other term “resident” was found to be used more often.
As most opinions from pro-democracy media and activists pointed out that the arrival of citizen awakening in 2014 after two protests was just flash in the pan and did not last. Thus, the term “Citizen awakening” was not often used when the pro-democracy media reported the protest in 2016.
4.2.3 “MACAU PEOPLE” IN ONLINE MEDIA
4.2.3 “MACAU PEOPLE” IN ONLINE MEDIA