The Democratic Progressive Party and former party spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) yesterday lost an appeal in a defamation lawsuit brought by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), with the Taiwan High Court ordering them to pay Ma compensation totaling NT$1.2 million (US$39,643).
The sum was greater than that ordered in the first ruling in 2015, when Taipei District Court judges ordered Liang and the party to pay Ma NT$300,000 in compensation, but were not required to issue a public apology in newspapers as Ma had demanded.
In 2011, Liang, then spokesman of the party, said on a TV talk show that Ma had solicited illegal political donations totaling NT$300 million during a meeting with Chen Ying-chu (陳盈助), who allegedly operated underground gambling pools and had ties to businesses run by gangsters.
Photo: Courtesy of Hit FM
Liang at the time said he was citing information published in a report by the Chinese-language Next Magazine, as well as recordings made by the journalist who conducted interviews for the report, which Liang said he had obtained.
Ma filed the defamation suit seeking NT$2 million in compensation and demanding that a public apology be printed in local newspapers.
In yesterday’s ruling, the Taiwan High Court said that Liang had not verified the information by reasonable means, and that he had no evidence to corroborate his remarks, which resulted in a negative public perception of Ma and damage to his reputation.
“It is disappointing to hear this ruling. I do not understand what the judges would constitute as verifying information by reasonable means,” Liang said after the verdict. “My remarks had real basis... Different judges will give widely different rulings, so I regret this verdict.”
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS