A campaign initiated by the Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters two weeks ago that calls on academics to reject any publication of their works by the Chinese-language China Times has so far gathered more than 100 signatures from acclaimed academics and writers.
The petition was galvanized by the conditional approval of a NT$76 billion (US$2.54 billion) deal allowing the Want Want China Times Group to acquire some of the cable TV services owned by China Network Systems (CNS) and its treatment of Academia Sinica associate research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who was accused by the media giant of paying students to attend a protest against the acquisition deal. The group later apologized for the accusations.
“Based on the Want Want China Times Group’s derogatory reports about Huang, we believe that the media group and its media subsidiaries have forsaken their self-discipline and journalistic ethics,” said Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), spokesman of the alliance, which is composed of 30 student clubs from several universities.
In particular, the China Times, a newspaper that used to be seen as the voice of the public, has gone against its journalistic conscience and become the personal mouthpiece of Want Want China Times Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), Lin said.
“That was why we decided to support an anti-media monopoly protest to be staged today with our petition movement,” Lin said.
Since the China Times is no longer faithful to journalistic ethics and has become nothing more than an “attack dog” for Tsai and his group, people must refuse to read it or to allow their work to be published in the newspaper, so as to uphold the principles of media independence and freedom of speech that society rightfully deserves, Lin said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
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