Lu and `The Journalist' refusing to give ground

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and The Journalist (新新聞週報), both stood their ground and spoke openly again yesterday -- each requesting the other to tell the truth.

After a month of wrangling, the dispute between the two sides reached a turning point on Thursday as Lu's legal team filed a libel suit against the magazine.

The magazine's editor-in-chief, Yang Chao (楊照), subsequently came forward for the first time to acknowledge that he was the one who received the phone call from Lu, wherein she allegedly told him President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was having an affair with one of his close aides.

"For the past month, The Journalist has sought only to reveal the truth. However, the vice president has been the sole screenwriter, director and actor of the episodes [referring to the dispute between the two sides]. She has been telling lies and saying things that they can't even convince themselves are true," said Wang Chien-chuang (王健壯), president of The Journalist.

Wang's statement came as a response to comments by Tsai Ming-hua (蔡明華), director of the vice president's office, at a press conference yesterday morning calling the magazine "the only screenwriter, director and actor" of the month-long melodrama.

Tsai asked that if Yang was the one who received that late-night phone call on Nov. 3 from the vice president, then why didn't they make public the phone-call record he claims to have in his possession.

In response to Yang's accusation that Lu is a liar for claiming she did not know him, Tsai said there are different levels of knowing someone.

"Lu does know of a person who once studied at Harvard University. But she does not know him personally, and there is no way she would call this person to gossip," Tsai stressed.

Tsai went on to uphold the credibility of the telephone records publicized by Lu's legal staff, which showed that Lu did not make any phone calls from her mobile phone between Nov. 3 and Nov. 6.

Lu's itinerary was hectic in the daytime so her mobile phone was kept by her bodyguards. When she went home at night, she used her telephone at home, Tsai explained.

Attacking Tsai's defense, Wang called her statement "contradictory" and said he understood how difficult it must be for her as a spokesperson for the government because she could never know what was real. Meanwhile, he appealed to Tsai to stop uttering unbelievable statements, even to herself, to avoid talking herself into a corner.

"Common sense alone makes one wonder how there can be no calls on record between Nov. 3 and Nov. 6 as Lu uses her phone constantly. And how can Lu deny her knowing Yang when she has a great memory regarding things that happened 20 or 30 years ago?" Wang said.

This is not a complicated issue. "Either you know someone or you don't ? It's no secret that Lu occasionally calls high-ranking members of the media ... We'd love to make Yang's phone record public if Lu is willing to assist."

Meanwhile, several people reportedly came forward yesterday to say that Lu and Yang are definitely acquaintances.

Sisy Chen (陳文茜), president of Power News and Yang's co-worker at DPP headquarters between 1996 and 1997, said that Lu was either a liar when she claimed she did not know Yang, or "Lu has partial amnesia."

The case is set to go to court on Jan. 12.