Ma files libel suit against DPP over TV commercial

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) filed a civil suit against the Demo-cratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday for libel over the party's linking Ma and pro-China activists together in its referendum promotional TV commercial.

Ma is suing DPP's legal representative Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) and Information and Cultural Department Director Mason Yang (楊孟勳) for NT$1, and a public apology in five major newspapers.

"It is such an irony that when President Chen Shui-bian received a human-rights award in New York, his party was trying to damage another person's human rights," Ma said, complaining that the DPP's commercial painted him as a communist.

The DPP officials said they are prepared to face Ma in court.

"Our lawyers have told us that the commercial did not constitute a libel case," said Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), deputy director of the party's Information and Culture Department.

Cheng said that all the scenes in the commercial were excerpts from news reports and the DPP did not do anything to distort them.

He said that if Ma had any problem with the images, he should have sued the media that first shot them.

"We did not use the commercial to target Mayor Ma and we hope he that would not target us either. It is not a good thing for politicians to sue each other and we hope Mayor Ma would try to be a good example," Cheng said.

Ma's anger appears directed mainly at the commercial showing him standing at a flag-raising ceremony on Double Ten National Day while a pro-China activist chanted "Long live [Chinese President] Hu Jintao (胡錦濤)."

The commercial was aimed at encouraging people around the country to join a pro-referendum rally in Kaohsiung on Oct. 25.

The ad began with the slogan "Support referendums, accelerate Taiwan's new constitution," followed by footage of a PRC flag fluttering in a motorcade during an anti-Taiwan-independence parade in Taipei on Sept. 7.

This shot was followed by footage of a flag-raising ceremony which Ma attended on Oct. 10 at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

As the flag is raised, a veteran soldier cries out: "Long live Hu Jintao!"

The pictures then fade out, accompanied by the words: "There is no need to fawn over China like this, even if you dislike Taiwan."

The city government issued an ultimatum on Nov. 7, demanding the DPP publish an apology in major newspapers within three days.

The DPP refused, insisting that the ad was not targeted at Ma.