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."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the