Three journalists arrested while covering the storming of Ministry of Education building late on Thursday night and early yesterday morning were released without bail by prosecutors after they insisted on pleading not guilty and refused to accept paying NT$10,000 bail earlier yesterday.
The three reporters arrested are Liao Chen-hui (廖振輝) — a Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) photographer, Sung Hsiao-hai (宋小海) of news Web site Coolloud.org.tw (苦勞網) and Lin Yu-yu (林雨佑), a freelance journalist.
All three were inside the ministry building when the students were subdued and arrested.
Photo: CNA
“It was the darkest day of my 19 years of working as a journalist,” Liao said after walking out of the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office last night. “If a government can turn a journalist into a criminal by simply saying: ‘We didn’t invite you to cover the news,’ which media organization would dare to monitor the government’s actions?”
Lin posted a video of police officers grappling for his camera and stating that the reporters had illegally entered the building and did not have any authority to engage in news gathering.
Police reinforcements prevented other members of the media from entering the ministry after news of the break-in emerged.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Despite criticism from the public, as well as from journalist and human rights groups, the ministry insisted on pressing charges against the three journalists.
“The Ministry of Education will withdraw the charges against the three reporters arrested late on Thursday only after determining that they did not participate in breaking into the ministry complex,” Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said yesterday.
“We hope that the journalists were not a part of this incident,” said Wu, who added that they should be accorded full protection if they were purely engaged in news gathering.
He said that there was a possibility that the reporters had “led” the students into the complex, which would mean that they “participated” in the break-in rather than “reporting on it.”
Ministry of Education Secretary-General Wang Chun-chuan (王俊傑) said all three of the reporters admitted to climbing over the barbed-wire barricades around the ministry building, adding that security camera footage would be analyzed to determine their exact roles.
Students late on Thursday clambered over the barricades and broke into the ministry building, temporarily occupying Wu’s office.
Wang said the decision to arrest the reporters was made by the on-site police commanding officer, while prosecutors would determine whether or not to charge them based on the available evidence.
The ministry would “cooperate” with the decisions of the police and the prosecutors’ office, he said.
Zhongzheng First Police Precinct Deputy Police Chief Lee Chuan-che (李權哲) earlier stated that the reporters had been arrested because the ministry had decided to press charges.
Bailiffs transferred 22 of the 33 individuals arrested for storming the ministry building to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday afternoon for further questioning.
All of those arrested were first taken to the headquarters of Taipei’s special police division for public security in the Songshan District (松山), where many remained yesterday afternoon.
At a separate setting yesterday, human rights lawyer Tseng Wei-kai (曾威凱) said the decision to arrest the journalists was an abuse of power by a government agency and that it infringed upon the right of the media to report the news.
Tseng said police used threats of legal action against those arrested, while confiscating mobile phones so the journalists could not call their employers.
Several rights groups released statements condemning police officers’ use of excessive force against the young students and questionable means used by members of the judiciary.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights legal specialist Hsu Jen-shuo (許仁碩) said that as the owner of the ministry compound, the ministry itself could choose whether or not to charge the students and the journalists for trespass.
Civic organizations also condemned the police officers for abusing their power and excessive use of force when arresting the students and journalists.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS