When a new team was introduced in late July to take over the cash-strapped Independent Evening Post (自立晚報), employees thought a changing of the guard would put the paper on a more solid footing. But reality appears to suggest otherwise.
"If the situation continues to deteriorate the way it has, the workers keep protesting and no financial backing can be found, the only solution is have the paper closed," Liu I-te (
Two weeks ago, the paper's workers' union filed a lawsuit against its former chairman Wang Shih-chien (
Only days later, the situation became more chaotic after the newly appointed Chang claimed his chairmanship wasn't valid because his appointment hadn't been approved by board members.
On July 26, it was widely reported that Chang, a doctor of Chinese medicine, had succeeded Wang as the Post's chairman.
But Chang said after the labor disputes re-emerged two weeks ago that he was being used by Wang as "a tool to evade his legal responsibilities."
On Tuesday, the paper's workers' union led a group of employees to protest in front of the DPP headquarters. They hoped the ruling party could help save the paper from perishing.
The group stressed their common ideology of challenging the KMT's dominance during its 54-year history and asked the DPP to expel Wang, a DPP Taipei City councilor, from the party.
But DPP authorities gave the petitioners a cold response, saying the party had no right to mete out a penalty to members who did not violate any party rules.
In the face of the paper's bleak financial outlook, Chang and Wang are denying any responsibility.
Chang told the Taipei Times yesterday that he was not able to offer any assistance for the time being, unless his status as the paper's chairman was cleared through the proper legal process.
Former chairman Wang said that his obligations with the paper were fulfilled when he handed over his managerial duties to the new team in July.
Wang said it was absurd to accuse him of embezzlement. According to Wang, the financial details concerning the newspaper have been made clear. He said the paper was NT$22 million in debt but was owed NT$37 million, meaning there was no deficit when he left.
A source at the newspaper told the Taipei Times yesterday that the paper's problems were not the fault of any individual, but were the combination of its protracted financial woes, its powerful and intransigent union and the fact that the new managers were unwilling to provide additional money.
There are 240 employees at the Post, who cost the paper NT$18 million per month.
Liu said it would be unfortunate if the paper was forced to close because under the new team, the paper has improved tremendously both in circulation and advertising.
"But if the union keeps pushing the management to the edge, the chance to find new capital will be very slim. Then the closing of the paper is inevitable," he said.
‘UNFRIENDLY’: Changing the nationality listing of Taiwanese residents to ‘China’ goes against EU foreign policy as well as democratic and human rights principles, MOFA said Taiwan yesterday called on Denmark to correct its designation of the nationality of Taiwanese residents as “China” or face retaliatory measures. The Danish government in 2024 changed the nationality of Taiwanese citizens on their residence permits from “Taiwan” to “China.” The decision goes against EU foreign policy and contravenes democratic and human rights principles, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said. Denmark should present a solution acceptable to Taiwan as soon as possible and correct the erroneous designation to preserve the longstanding friendship between the two nations, Hsiao said. The issue could damage Denmark’s image and business reputation in Taiwan,
Taiwan climbed to its highest position in global export rankings in more than three decades last year, buoyed by demand linked to artificial intelligence (AI) that lifted shipments of semiconductors and technology products, Ministry of Finance data released yesterday showed. Taiwan accounted for 2.4 percent of global exports last year, or about US$640 billion, ranking 12th worldwide, the data showed. That was up four places from a year earlier and marked the nation’s best ranking since 1994, the ministry said. Taiwan’s share of global exports rose by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year, the largest increase among major economies, reflecting the nation’s
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS