Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai (
Within hours of hitting the newsstands yesterday, Next magazine was sold out.
The premier issue: Accusations from the jilted lover of Chao Chien-min (
PHOTO: REUTERS
On the magazine's cover was a photograph of Chao holding hands with fiancee Chen Ching-yu (
"The ex-girlfriend of the president's prospective son-in-law gives her inside story of a womanizer," the headline said.
In the story, the girlfriend accused Chao of dumping her to find someone who could help him advance his career.
Sensational, indeed. All 270,000 copies of the double-issue edition -- which contained other stories of political and business leaders, gangsters and TV entertainers with sensational paparazzi-style photographs -- sold out within four hours.
That followed an NT$120 million advertising campaign successful in creating a buzz about the publication. One ad plastered to the side of Taipei public buses shows two eyes on a woman's bare bottom. The accompanying title says: ``Adultery? Please watch out.''
Those who liked the magazine said yesterday the publication was doing a good job "upholding the people's right to know" by putting the lives of public figures under the microscope.
"We're entitled to know the real sides of politicians. We want to know whether their words match their deeds," one reader said.
But others criticized the magazine for invading the personal lives of public figures by choosing issues that have little public interest.
"Why do we need to know about the past romantic history of the future son-in-law of the president? It's entirely irrelevant to the welfare of the general public," said Liu Hui-ping (
Liu said that the media should report not on what people "want to know," but what readers "are entitled to know."
Ping Lu (
"Tabloid reporting is inevitable in a society where people tend to have a desire to poke and pry into other people's private affairs, but there is a limit to it," Ping said.
"If politicians intend to portray themselves as perfect characters during election campaigns, then it is the media's responsibility to expose their lies. Otherwise, I don't see the point of it," she said.
Other commentators said stiffer competition in the cutthroat world of media would probably lower the quality of journalism in the country.
Still, Chin Heng-wei (
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the