A women's rights group yesterday complained that government offices and the media did not handle rape allegations against former New Party lawmaker Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) carefully or properly. Their carelessness caused the victim to be violated twice, the group said.
"Our research shows that the Taipei City Government's Department of Labor and the Department of Social Welfare's Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault should be blamed," said Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻), chairwoman of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights.
Wu said that under the rape-victim protection system, the police, the labor department, local hospitals and the center are supposed to alert each other and update their latest information once a rape victim reports to any one of them. Social workers, police officers, labor officials and medical doctors will then provide help to the victims. However, in this case, the center and the department did not do their jobs as they were supposed to.
According to Wu, the victim, who was only identified as Rose, reported to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) on Jan. 23 that she had been raped by Fung. Accompanied by the office's employees, Rose went to Mackay Memorial Hospital for help and reported to the police. The police alerted the center around 5pm on Jan. 24. The hospital, however, did not do so until Jan. 26.
However, the labor department was not alerted at all until its officials received a fax from the MECO on Jan. 27.
"As a result, it is our understanding that Rose was not helped by any social workers or government officials," Wu said.
The center's director, Tung Fu-chuan (童富泉), immediately responded yesterday afternoon that the center did not alert the labor department because it was Rose's wish they not to do so.
In the meantime, Broadcasting Development Fund CEO Connie Lin (
"What Rose looks like, how Rose sounds and how Rose was raped were all described in detail in newspapers for the past couple of days," Lin said.
"It seems to me that the media have mentally raped Rose again," she said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS