The potential paroling of a serial rapist known as the "Wolf of Hwakang" has caused much hand-wringing among members of the nation's media.
At issue is whether the rapist, whose name is a matter of public record, should be identified.
The "Wolf" gained admission to National Taiwan University's sociology department earlier this month.
Though many news groups have reported on his possible attendance at the university, only two media organizations have mentioned his name in full.
Many journalists say the purpose of the name omission is to protect the convict's rights, despite the fact that his identity had been widely reported at the time of his conviction in November 1996.
Chuang Jung-hung (
For the same reason, the management of the Taipei Times also decided not to identify the rapist.
"A university is a microcosm of society. If we don't allow him to enter the university, how can he integrate with society again?" Chuang said.
On Aug. 7, the Ministry of Justice released its annual list of 20 convicts who had gained admission into universities following the Joint College Entrance Exam. Twenty convicts were named, but local media focused mostly on the "Wolf."
Many of the news organizations reported the story without mentioning the full names of the convicts and the departments for which they received admission.
The "Wolf" was sentenced in 1997 to 16 years in prison for a series of rapes. According to a finding by the Shihlin District Court, he had raped 19 women, attempted to rape 11 women and robbed four individuals between 1994 and 1996.
Most of his victims were college students.
When the justice ministry released the results of convicts who had taken the college entrance exam, two of the nation's leading evening newspapers -- the China Times Express and the United Evening News -- devoted half a page to the story. The newspapers provided information on the school and department to which the rapist had gained entry, but not his full name.
But that same day, the online paper Ettoday.com and the evening paper Power News published the rapist's name in full.
Yao Hui-chen (
"The Ministry of Justice gave the full names of the 20 convicts that were admitted to universities in its press release, but no journalist sensed that one of them was a serial rapist," Yao said. "If I had known the person was the `Wolf,' I wouldn't have put his full name in my story."
In addition to not publishing the rapist's full name, local media -- because of a failure to do some basic fact-checking -- confused him with the "Wolf of Shihlin," another serial rapist convicted in 1988.
While local media have sought to protect the rapist's identity, Western journalists have held a different opinion on the matter.
A journalist from a foreign news agency, who asked not to be named, believes that providing a full account of the facts contained in the public record is simply what journalists are obliged to do.
"He's an adult and his name can be found in the public record. Why not publish his name?" the journalist said.
Lin Ho-ling (
"A serial rapist poses no smaller a threat than any other kind of criminal," Lin said. "We should think about how to treat these convicts after they come back to society, instead of just focusing on a rapist."
Kuo Li-hsin (
"Taiwan media like to discuss personal affairs, but never want to take any public issue seriously," Kuo said. "And that's why I don't think we should print the rapist's name."
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