對台灣戰後初期報業的原料控制(1945-1967)—新聞紙的壟斷生產與計畫性供應
Controlling the Cultural Paper of Taiwan Newspaper Industry (1945-1967)—Newsprint Monopoly Production and Limit Distribution
The Taiwan newspapers marketplace had been manipulated by the government after the newsprint rationing was established in 1945. Furthermore, facing with the scarcity of foreign reserve and pulp, Nationalist government in Taiwan set the limitations on the size of newspapers. After Nationalist realized the newspapers needed to be oppressed to stabilize its ruling power, the rationing system is nothing more than a restriction strategy of press freedom.
Without showing its conspiracy, the state successfully limited the press freedom through the newsprint rationing made by a coalition with local capitals and press publishers in a patron-client relationship. The state also closely cooperated with economic planning committee to treat newsprint as one of import substitution. As a result, press was asked to exclusively purchase newsprint from a single local vendor run by Taiwan Provincial Government and pay the high price to subsidy the loss of export newsprint sales. Without the import newsprint, the dissent press cannot help but purchase the expensive local ones during ruthlessly press competition triggered by the gradually deregulated rationing system. Attacked by the high production cost and low advertising revenue, the dissent press was forced to recruit the external capital and let the Nationalist-led capitalist take over the lion ’s share of ownership. The demise of press freedom in the early years of postwar Taiwan could be critically explained by a political, economic, and social cultural integrated perspective which contributed to an alternative study on Taiwan press history.