Every year on May 3rd, journalists around the world celebrate World Press Freedom Day, a day established by the United Nations in 1993 to raise awareness for press freedom, evaluate the state of press freedom around the world, and remind governments of their responsibility to uphold the right to expression. But in many parts of the world, it is a day of reckoning.

Nowhere is the imbalance greater than in Asia. According to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), China, a major power in the region, ranked 178 out of 180 countries in 2025, making it one of the most censored countries in the world.  Even in democratic countries like South Korea and Japan, traditions, business interests, and gender inequalities often limit freedom of expression for journalists. For much of the continent, press freedom is not guaranteed. 

Yet in East Asia, one nation stands in striking contrast: Taiwan. Ranked 24th in the world by the RSF and first in Asia, Taiwan has over 170 radio stations and hundreds of privately owned newspapers that provide a noisy and multi-perspective media environment (BBC, 2023). But this freedom did not emerge naturally, nor was it granted from above. 

In 1947, the Kuomintang (KMT) government introduced Article 11 of the Constitution, granting people “the freedom of speech, writing, teaching, and publication.” Yet when the KMT retreated to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the nationalist government introduced martial law through the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion—authorizing the president to impose “emergency measures” that effectively bypassed “procedural restrictions … of the Constitution.” What the government claimed to be a temporary wartime measure ended up lasting 38 years—the longest martial law in history—giving the government power to silence any opposition for criticizing the government. 

The clearest example was the newspaper freeze. The nationalist government capped the number of licensed newspapers at 31. James Soong, former Chief of the Government Information Office, appeared openly unapologetic. He stated, “The government does not allow new papers, or for papers to increase their pages…” Even licensed papers that were allowed to publish “had to follow the official rhetoric and refrain from offending the government.” When former premier Chiang Ching-kuo claimed that “… most of these publications are free to express the views of the people and uphold justice,” many Taiwanese citizens were unconvinced and resisted against the government. (Taipei Times, 2019)

The resistance took form in the Tangwai Movement, meaning “outside the party.” Since the government prevented any opposition from running in “elections,” they turned towards print publications. Throughout the 1970s, a series of anti-KMT magazines emerged, with the most significant being the Formosa Magazine, founded in the summer of 1979. Within months, the magazine reached 100,000 readers and quickly became the opposition’s most powerful platform (International Committee for Human Rights in Taiwan, 1987). Its editors made three demands: lift martial law, re-elect congress, and amend the Constitution (Human Rights Museum, 2019). 

On December 10th, 1979, the magazine organized a rally in Kaohsiung that ended in a violent crackdown. In weeks that followed, eight prominent opposition leaders, the “Kaoshiong Eight,” were tried in military court, and 152 people were indicted in total.

However, under international pressure, the nationalist government held open trials that were broadcasted to the general public. Sympathy for the defendants swelled into a broader pro-democracy movement that ultimately forced the KMT government to lift martial law on July 15th, 1987.

After martial law was lifted, Taiwan’s press transformed overnight. The 31 tightly controlled newspapers under the martial law era exploded into “126 just in one year” (Taipei Times, 2019). Today, Taiwan is ranked first in Asia for press freedom, not because the island was always free, but because the citizens were willing to stand up against an authoritarian government and fight for civil rights. Taiwan’s journey is one of many examples of what World Press Freedom Day exists to honor, and reminds the world of the importance of the right to expression.