中國因素與威權擴散：中國對香港與台灣新聞自由之影響（2008-2015）

根據《自由之家》的2018年報告指出，全球自由度已經發生連續12年的倒退，世界各地皆出現大規模民主退潮。其中，威權強權正透過強大的政經實力來對各國發揮影響力，並對當地的自由與人權狀況產生負面影響，形成國際威權擴散。在亞洲，香港的新聞自由度自主權移交以來於2008年首次被《自由之家》評為「部分自由」；同年，台灣的中時媒體集團則被立場親中的旺旺集團收購，新聞自由也明顯出現倒退。反映出港、台兩地的自由與人權不但正受到中國因素的威脅，同時新聞自由也因此而受到影響。中國於近年來試圖控制與影響港、台媒體的同時，也導致兩地新聞自由發生倒退，在這個過程中的所發生的因果關係與運作機制為何？而這樣的現象是否屬於威權擴散呢？本研究結合中國因素與威權擴散的觀點，分別比較港、台兩地從2008至2015年媒體環境與生態的發展，以及無綫電視（TVB）與旺旺中時兩件分別在港、台發生的大型媒體併購案之原因與過程，試圖解釋中國因素在其中的作用力與運作機制。接著，再進一步與威權擴散理論進行對話與討論，以充實相關研究的豐富度。香港與台灣近年來逐漸對中國形成經濟依賴，兩地也都先後由親中政權執政，同時跨海峽資本家與在地協力者也逐漸出現，成為有利於中國因素影響港、台媒體的結構。本研究指出，由於彼此政治關係的不同，中國影響香港媒體的方式與手段與對台灣相比，較為直接且多元；同時，中國可直接以中資併購香港媒體來進行控制，但是對台灣媒體則需要透過中間代理人。不過，中國對港、台媒體經過近幾年的經營，未來將能夠直接影響個別的媒體企業。最後，本研究認為，雖然中國造成港、台新聞自由出現倒退的模式不完全相同，但皆為中國因素影響下的區域威權擴散。

關鍵字

中國因素；威權擴散；台灣；香港；新聞自由；媒體併購

並列摘要

According to Freedom House report in 2018, over the past 12 years, freedom has been declining drastically and democratic backsliding has been witnessed all over the world. The world’s leading autocracies and superpowers are expanding their political and economic influence across the globe, undermining the freedom and human rights within their countries, causing regional and global diffusion of authoritarian. In Asia, Hong Kong was graded “Partly Free” in 2008 for the first time since the handover. In the same year, Taiwanese media China Times Group was acquired by Tsai Eng-meng, the chairman of Want Want China Holdings, and press freedom in Taiwan has been declining significantly ever since. China factor has not only been threatening the freedom and human rights in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also undermining the press freedom in both societies. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how China controls over the media in Hong Kong and Taiwan and gradually erodes their freedom of the press. Another aim was to find out what are the causality and mechanisms in the process and whether they are parts of cross-national diffusion of authoritarian. With the perspectives of China factor and authoritarian diffusion, this thesis compared the media environment between Hong Kong and Taiwan from 2008 to 2015 as well as the media mergers and acquisitions, TVB in Hong Kong and Want Want China Times Group in Taiwan, to explain how the influential mechanisms of China factor work in these cases. Furthermore, this thesis developed a discussion between comparative findings and the authoritarian diffusion theory with an eye to expanding the qualitative abundance. With the increasing economic dependence on China and the emerging of local pro-China government, cross-strait business group and local collaborative network, the China factor framework can without doubt influence and control the media in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. The findings showed that China’s influence over media in Hong Kong, comparing with Taiwan, is more direct and multiple due to their different political relationship. At the same time, China can control Hong Kong’s media through direct acquisition with Chinese capital, but need to have a third-party agent when the object is Taiwan. However, under the operation of China, it appeared that it will have the power to influence or control individual media corporation in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the near future. Hence, the conclusion was that though the patterns of press freedom erosion caused by China between Hong Kong and Taiwan are not completely the same, they all refer to authoritarian diffusion influenced by China factor.