Taiwan is on tenterhooks ahead of a libel trial involving politics, sex and a presidential interpreter.
"For most Taiwanese, it's like watching a soap opera," said political scientist Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). "Taiwan's media is very free and intrusive. It's a test of the limits of Taiwan's press freedom."
Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu, who is seeking a public apology from The Journalist, Taiwan's best-selling political weekly, will not appear in court, her spokesman said by telephone yesterday. Her lawyers will present opening arguments on her behalf.
Days before the start of the trial -- unprecedented as it involves the vice president -- Lu denounced editors of The Journalist, saying they were the "scriptwriter, director and actor" of a fictitious movie all at the same time.
Defendant Yang Chao (
The Journalist dropped a bombshell in November when it accused Lu of calling her media friends and hinting that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was having an affair with his interpreter.
Dubbed "Taiwan's Monica Lewinsky scandal," the rumors surfaced at a time when Chen faced threats of dismissal by the opposition-controlled legislature for a controversial decision to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. The threats have since lost steam.
A war of words between Lu and the weekly have filled the pages of newspapers and airtime of television news programs and talk shows, turning attention away from Chen's woes. Taiwan's media is one of Asia's freest after decades of iron-fisted rule which ended with the lifting of martial law in 1987.
The scandal has hurt Lu more than President Chen.
The 56-year-old vice president, a former women's rights activist jailed in the 1980s for demanding democratic changes, has flatly denied she is the source of the rumors. The Journalist, which has close ties to the DPP, has stood by its story and accused Lu of trying to suppress press freedoms.
It is one of Taiwan's most respected magazines with a weekly circulation of 50,000. One of its founders, Antonio Chiang (司馬文武), former editor in chief of the Taipei Times, joined the government last year as deputy secretary-general of the powerful National Security Council.
Opposition deputies have demanded that Lu step down if The Journalist story turns out to be true.
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