Several civic groups yesterday condemned cable TV news channel Era News for firing and suing two employees who accused the station of ignoring calls for help from victims of Typhoon Morakot during the flooding last month.
On Aug. 10, amid the stormy weather, torrential rain, flooding and slow government response, several news channels set up hotlines to take calls for help from storm victims, promising to pass on the information to concerned government agencies as soon as possible.
Later that day, an Era News assistant director, who had been working at the station for more than three years, posted an article on a personal blog alleging the channel had simply put the messages from callers aside, instead of passing them on to the authorities.
The writer said staffers had questioned the handling of the information, but they were only told not to say anything.
A senior program director at the station came out in support of the assistant director.
Era News released a statement rebutting the allegation, and the two employees were fired shortly afterwards.
In their latest blog posting, the two former Era News employees said that they had received official notice from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office that Era News had filed a slander suit against them and that prosecutors would soon launch a probe into the case.
The Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ), the Media Watch Foundation and the Taiwan Labor Front yesterday released a statement in support of the two.
“What the two [former] Era News employees did does not warrant termination of their employment or a lawsuit based on Era News’ own code of conduct or the criteria listed in the Criminal Code (刑法) for slander,” ATJ chairman Leon Chuang (莊豐嘉) said in the statement. “Instead of communicating with its employees, Era News decided to fire them. Such action not only damages the reputation of these journalists, but also violates their right to work.”
“The two [former] employees reported what they thought was wrong to their superior and did not post the article on the Internet until they realized it was useless telling their superiors about it,” Media Watch chairman Kuang Chung-hsiang (管中祥) said. “I don’t think you can consider that ‘slander.’”
The three groups urged Era News to withdraw the lawsuit and restore the two former employees’ right to work. They said they would take further action if the station did not respond positively to their requests.
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