Increasingly buffeted by the opposition, President Chen Shui-bian tried to intimidate some critical media, but Taiwan, a zone of freedom in East Asia, is blessed with a pluralist press.

In July 2005, a government body cancelled the licence of a pro-opposition TV channel EETVS, on the pretext that it was putting out too much news. The authorities also invoked its relaying of footage of singer Janet Jackson's bared breast at the final of the US superbowl. In November, the government fined another pro-opposition channel TVBS after trying to get it shut down on the grounds that it was majority owned by foreigners.

Since journalists on the island are banned from attending all events organised by the United Nations, in particular the World Health Organisation, Taiwan, in April withdrew accreditation from two correspondents from China.

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