Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday said he would pen a protest letter to Freedom House over its latest report alleging he meddled with news content while at the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA).
The Washington-based political and human rights watchdog this week released a full version of Freedom in the World 2010 that included individual country reports.
On Taiwan, the report said the placement of information by the government has become a major problem in Taiwan’s news media and that some personnel changes in certain state-owned media have raised concerns of political interference. As an example, the report cited Lo’s appointment in October 2008 as vice president at CNA shortly after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May 2008. CNA employees, the report said, received instructions to alter the content of some reports to dilute criticism of the government.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lo was one of the three main spokespersons for Ma during the latter’s presidential election campaign in 2008.
He took the post of Presidential Office spokesman on March 1.
Lo yesterday said he had had no hand in news reporting or processing during his tenure at the CNA.
He said that Freedom House should not have included accusations made by people with ulterior motives in its report for Taiwan without consulting the people involved.
Lo said CNA had already responded to such accusations in 2008, saying that there had been no inappropriate interference.
He said that his role as CNA vice president was an administrative one that placed him in charge of business operations and legal affairs, as well as assisting the agency’s president in handling administrative matters. Lo said that he had no responsibility for how news was processed, including interviews, editing and publication of reports.
He also said that any accusation in the Freedom House survey that he had interfered inappropriately in CNA’s news processing was untrue. He added that if Freedom House needed any further explanation from him, he would be willing to speak with them directly.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS