Soochow University yesterday failed to reach a consensus on a proposal to restrict its professors from appearing on political talk shows more than four times a month, the school’s spokeswoman said yesterday after an all-day meeting on the matter.
Talk of the restriction drew fire from the Government Information Office (GIO) as well as from pan-green legislators, who panned the school for impeding the pundits’ freedom of speech and expression.
“We constantly receive complaints from audiences that disagree with what the professors say,” said Lee Kuei-ying (李貴英), the university spokeswoman.
The proposed restriction, she asserted, was not meant to infringe upon the professors’ freedom of speech, but rather to ascertain whether the professors had sufficient time to concentrate on their academic duties.
Skeptics, however, have speculated the policy was meant to shield premier-designate Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), who ended his tenure as university president yesterday, from criticism.
The policy was not politically oriented or geared toward a particular party, but based on the educational quality of the university, Lee said.
She added that the proposal was submitted to the school’s board last June and that Liu has tried to communicate with the professors several times in the months before he was appointed premier.
For example, she pointed out that assistant political science professor Hsu Yong-ming (徐永明) a frequent guest on pan-green shows, appeared on talkshows on average 103 out of 144 days, which translated to five days a week.
Hsu said he would seek a constitutional interpretation on the proposed policy.
University political science department head Luo Chih-cheng (羅致正) even has his own call-in talk show on pan-green television station Formosa Television.
Some staunch pan-blue supporters have threatened to stop making donations to the school if the professors continue to go on these shows, reports said.
Other schools such as Chinese Culture University and National Taipei University have affirmed that they will not interfere with their professors’ freedom to express their political beliefs on TV shows.
GIO Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), speaking in his capacity as a staff member of Soochow University, yesterday said he disapproved of the proposal.
Shieh, who was a professor at the university’s German Department before entering politics as the country’s representative to Germany in 2005, will resume teaching at the school on Aug. 1.
“The proposal is inappropriate because appearing on TV political talk shows after work, just like writing articles, falls within the scope of personal freedom of speech,” Shieh said.
A professor is subject to criminal or civil responsibility if what he says on talk shows breaks the rules, Shieh said.
“It is understandable Soochow feels annoyed about this as most of its professors who appear on TV speak in favor of the pan-green camp, but what the school should be concerned about is whether those professors spread their ideology in classes and not on TV,” Shieh said.
Soochow has been characterized as a university that values the spirit of freedom, and which played an important role in the country’s democratization, said Shieh, calling on the university to drop the proposal.
Liu is famous for his decision to block Bureau of Investigation agents from entering National Tsing Hua University in 1991 to arrest four students whom the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime said planned to organize a pro-independence group.
Liu was then the president of National Tsing Hua University.
“What Liu did then was worthy of praise, and he should know better than anyone that people have different opinions in a free and democratic society,” Shieh said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai