The Judicial Reform Foundation (民間司法改革基金會) yesterday said that the results of a recent Internet survey it conducted showed that 65 percent of the public does not trust Taiwan's judicial system, three years into the Judicial Yuan's reform program.
The foundation released the results of the survey at a press conference at the Taiwan Bar Association yesterday. The 12-question survey was conducted on the Internet from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30. There were 455 respondents over the age of 18.
John Chen (陳傳岳), the president of the foundation, said that the survey showed that 65 percent of the interviewees said that trials couldn't be relied upon to produce correct verdicts; 81 percent believed that judges are politically biased; 66 percent thought that judges are corrupt; and 47 percent didn't know that the Judicial Yuan has been working on a program of judicial reform for three years.
"This is our second Internet survey regarding judicial reform since it began in 1999," said Chen.
"We wanted to see how people felt about the judicial reform since it has been carried out for three years. We would like to know if people experience the progress made by the Judicial Yuan as well as local courts and prosecutors' offices," Chen said.
The 11-year judicial reform program was launched following a national conference on legal reform in 1999 that took place amid public outrage about corruption within the judiciary.
Chen said that the Judicial Yuan's efforts at judicial reform were recognized and appreciated by law enforcement officers, lawyers and legal scholars.
However, the results of the survey are seen as a sign that the efforts were neither seen nor heard by the public; and that most people still have a poor image of the justice system.
"This is what concerns us the most," he said.
Joseph Lin (
"Hard working judges or prosecutors who deserve some encouragement may feel upset about the results of the survey. However, let me remind you, the judicial reform is not done yet. We still have another eight years to work on it," said Lin.
Secretary-General of the Judicial Yuan Yang Ren-shou (楊仁壽) said that the Judicial Yuan would accept both criticism and compliments.
Yang said he believed that most judges and prosecutors are working very hard to repair the bad image and reputation of Taiwan's justice system.
"There's still lots of work to do. But our determination to make progress and improve the judicial system will never change," Yang said.
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