The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) threatened legal action after guests on a talk show criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), but the party said it was only defending its reputation against political talk show guests and comments it regarded as departing from the truth, and was not taking action against media outlets themselves.
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) made the remarks in response to a report published by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday that said the KMT would file a lawsuit against Formosa Television (FTV, 民視) over comments recently made on its political talk show Boss Talk (頭家來開講).
In its show on Thursday, the host, former Government Information Office minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), and the show’s guests -discussed the Supreme Court’s latest ruling convicting former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife on bribery charges. The guests accused Ma and the KMT of interfering with the judiciary by vowing to lead a judicial reform and seeking to use the rulings to boost momentum in the upcoming elections.
The KMT sent a letter to FTV the next day, demanding that the TV channel clarify the remarks within three days or face legal action.
Prior to the FTV case, KMT -Honorary Chairman Wu Poh--hsiung (吳伯雄) brought a lawsuit against the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper), while King sued political commentator Chung Nien-huang (鍾年晃), who appears on a talk show on SET-TV (三立電視).
King said the statement was issued to FTV to demand guests on the show clarify their remarks and stop tarnishing the reputation of the party.
“The KMT needs to defend our reputation if the guests on the show make groundless accusations and smear the KMT. We are not aiming at the TV station,” he said.
King said the party continued to respect and support media outlets’ rights to monitor government performance and give advice, and agreed that it is the government’s obligation to accept such supervision from the media.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) on Friday accused FTV, SET-TV and the Liberty Times of holding extreme stances and attacking the KMT viciously in their news coverage.
King yesterday dismissed speculation that the KMT would take -action against the three media outlets following Hung’s remarks, and said the party is confident that voters would denounce any form of negative campaigning in the elections
When asked by the press for comment, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said the KMT, being the governing party, should have a bigger heart when responding to criticism.
The KMT should respect political commentators’ freedom of speech, DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) added.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG, CNA AND STAFF WRITER
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