Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday proposed an amendment prohibiting military personnel from criticizing the government in public, while opposition legislators called the proposed law a violation of the constitutional right to free speech.
The legislature's Home and Nations Committee yesterday referred an amendment to Article 6 of the National Defense Act to the legislative floor with the DPP legislators' support.
If the amendment is passed by the legislature, it would prohibit military personnel from printing, distributing and posting information that is not politically neutral.
Members of the military are also prohibited from holding or joining partisan rallies, the draft bill says.
"The amendment is against freedom of speech, which is protected by the Constitution, so the amendment is unconstitutional," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
Lin and several opposition legislators did not attend yesterday's committee meeting.
DPP Legislator Tang Huo-shen (
In one of the controversial incidents, Major Tung Hwa-cheng (董華正), a military instructor at Taipei Senior High School in Shilin (士林), was detained last month by the Military High Court Prosecutors' Office and charged with inciting treason after he took part in an anti-Chen protest on Sept. 20.
At the protest, Tung showed a copy of a letter he had sent to Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑), in which he said any soldier would take the opportunity to murder the president in a war.
The prosecutor's office said that while Tung's participation in the protest was not a problem, it considered his appearance in uniform and the letter's content as a violation of the Military Criminal Code (
In addition, Chu Chao-kang (屈肇康), an army honor guard who posted a message in an Internet chatroom suggesting that he wanted to harm the president, was detained by military prosecutors in July.
Chu wrote in his message that when he took part in an honor guard to welcome Nauru President Ludwig Scotty on March 7: "I almost could not resist the urge to poke my M-1 rifle into the president's head."
Article 6 of the National Defense Act now requires military personnel to not engage in regional and party affiliations.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
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