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.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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