The Presidential Office accepted an apology as well as corrections made by Weekly Magazine over a misleading report which claimed that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had played a role in the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) preparations for next year's presidential election, an official said yesterday.
high expectations
David Lee (李南陽), director of the Presidential Office's department of public affairs, said the office had expectations that the news media would fulfill its responsibility and obligations as the Fourth Estate and contribute to the deepening of the country's democracy.
Lee urged the media to avoid making irresponsible or untrue reports which risk causing civic unrest.
On Friday, the Presidential Office threatened to sue the weekly for libel unless it made a correction within 24 hours to a story appearing in its latest issue, in which Chen was said to have met DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
rumors
The weekly claimed that during the meeting, Chen and Hsieh had reached an agreement which stipulated that if Hsieh were indicted for any irregularities, former premier Su Tseng-chang (
A special investigation task force under the Supreme Prosecutors' Office is probing 10 cases of alleged irregularities involving Hsieh while he was mayor of Kaohsiung.
These include suspected corruption in connection with the construction of the Kaohsiung mass rapid transit system as well as a case in which Hsieh was alleged to have used improper methods to solicit political donations.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
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