Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Pasuya Yao (姚文智) allegedly manipulated the electronic records of the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday in order to deny a story printed in the morning edition of the Chinese-language United Daily News.
The dispute between Yao and UDN senior political affairs reporter Lee Shun-te (李順德) arose after Lee's story ran in yesterday's paper, which alleged that Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was very upset with Yao during last week's legislative meeting after Yao became angry and decided to leave the review meeting for next year's GIO budget, after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) called him a pizi [ruffian,
Lee's story reported that Hsieh had expressed his unhappiness with Yao during the legislative meeting. The story quoted Hsieh as criticizing Yao for "showing off like a hero" and complaining that Yao's behavior would lead the GIO into monetary problems for next year.
The story also quoted Hsieh as telling Yao that Cabinet members are obliged to be questioned by lawmakers and attend legislative meetings, especially when budgets are being reviewed.
"You cannot simply leave just because you are unhappy. It is not right. This is not a one-man show," Hsieh said.
However, the story was denied outright by Yao and Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). Yao implied that Lee had made up the story.
"Are you happy with the story?" Yao asked Lee in front of a group of reporters in the GIO press room yesterday afternoon. "I am afraid that your story is inaccurate because what you said did not happen at all during the meeting."
Lee then told Yao that he had simply cut and pasted the paragraph from the meeting records, which were available from the GIO's Web site. Yao said that he had not seen anything like that on the Web site.
When Lee logged on the Web site and tried to retrieve the offending paragraph, he discovered that the paragraph had allegedly been changed.
The weekly Cabinet meeting record that Lee had quoted was the record for Nov. 16. The GIO usually makes the weekly Cabinet meeting records public a week after the date when the meetings are held.
The premier's complaints about Yao were not reported last week because Yao did not mention anything about them during the regular press conference after last week's meeting.
"I discovered the paragraph that Yao forgot to talk about during last week's press conference, so I decided to take it from the Web site and make a story with it," Lee said.
Yao did not make any further comments about the issue.
When approached by reporters, Cho said that the atmosphere inside the meeting was nothing like Lee had described.
"I remember the premier praising Yao for his heroism instead of complaining about him showing off," he said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS