A group of academics yesterday rallied behind Tsuang Ben-jei (莊秉潔), a professor against whom Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) filed a lawsuit over his research, which the company said had injured its reputation.
Tsuang, a faculty member of National Chung Hsing University’s (NCHU) department of environmental engineering, is a target of FPG’s ire for remarks he made last year during a meeting of the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) environmental impact assessment committee in which he reported that hazardous heavy metals and carcinogenic substances contained in the exhaust gas emitted by the company’s sixth naphtha cracker plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) resulted in a higher cancer occurrence rate for nearby residents.
FPG filed a civil suit alleging the sullying of its reputation with a compensation claim of NT$40 million (US$1.3 million) as well as a criminal suit alleging aggravated defamation and demanded that Tsuang place a public notice of apology in newspapers.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
At a press conference yesterday, Chou Kuei-tien (周桂田), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development and host of the conference, said that by Saturday night, 485 academics, including former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), had signed a petition in support of Tsuang.
The petition states their support for Tsuang and his freedom to speak, reprimands FPG for “arbitrarily oppressing academic freedom” and urges the company to withdraw the lawsuit.
The academics said fear from FPG’s actions would have a chilling effect, resulting in a regression of academic freedoms within a democratic society.
Tsuang had the academic conscience to stand out and expose the health effects caused by the sixth naphtha cracker’s exhaust and so the issue should be discussed further and debated, Chou Chang-hung (周昌弘) of Academia Sinica said.
“From the perspective of the nobility of academic freedom, we will not allow our space for academic debate to become the defendant. I feel sad and mortified [about the case],” Chou said. “If academics are afraid to stand out to tell the truth to the public, then we should feel a sense of guilt for not paying our social responsibilities.”
Academic freedom is recognized as a basic human right worldwide and the right to bring forth unwelcome viewpoints should be protected from being threatened or interfered with, said NCHU secretary-general Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), who participated in the press conference on behalf of the university.
Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群), an assistant professor at Chung Yuan Christian University and convener of the Association of Taiwan Democracy, urged prosecutors not to initiate legal proceedings against Tsuang and for the judiciary to adhere to freedom of speech as protected by the Constitution.
The first trial session of the case is scheduled for Thursday.
Meanwhile, FPG lawyer Wu Yu-hsueh (吳雨學) said the corporation respected academic freedom, but Tsuang’s research cited false data, which had damaged its reputation and caused panic among residents in the area.
Wu said the data was simulated and did not represent the actual emissions volume of the plant, which placed Tsuang’s actions outside the scope of protection of the freedom of speech.
FPG had asked Tsuang to provide the sources of his data and asked for greater clarification of the report, but Tsuang had not responded, Wu said.
In the report, Tsuang cited the EPA as a source of his data, but when the corporation contacted the agency, it denied ever providing such data to Tsuang, Wu said.
Asked if the corporation would drop the lawsuit, Wu said the case has entered the legal system, but there was room for reconciliation if Tsuang wishes to settle out of court.
It depends on whether Tsuang was willing to apologize or find a way to restore FPG’s reputation, Wu said.
If FPG wins the lawsuit, it would donate the NT$40 million in damages to charity, Wu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS