The Pots Weekly (破報), a publication dedicated to the coverage of issues concerning the younger generation and minorities in the country, announced yesterday that it would suspend publication at the end of this month.
The final edition of the weekly newspaper will be issued on Wednesday next week, the publication said.
The newspaper’s editorial department said it was instructed by the company’s higher management to produce a special edition to mark the final publication.
Shih Shin University College of Journalism and Communications dean Chen Ching-ho (陳清河) said suspending the publication was a painful decision to make.
“The university is operating on a tight budget due to a decrease in enrollment and the tuition freeze ordered by the Ministry of Education. The university has decided to suspend the weekly newspaper for at least one year and will determine whether publication should be resumed after an evaluation of the university’s financial situation,” Chen said.
Founded in 1995, the newspaper was originally a special section of the Taiwan Lipao (台灣立報), a newspaper funded by Shih Shin University to cover mainly educational issues. Pots then became a weekly newspaper that is available free of charge.
The newspaper’s Web site said the alternative newspaper has a circulation of about 80,000 copies per week. Free copies can be picked up at university and high-school campuses, as well as bookstores, pubs, live music houses, coffee shops, performance arts venues, art galleries and museums.
Controversies surrounding the newspaper began when its first edition was issued in September, 1995, with the publication of a cover story titled One Hundred Attitudes Toward Abortion.
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corp originally allowed Pots Weekly newsstands in Taipei’s MRT stations, but the publication drew criticism over its progressive view on social issues and potentially “jeopardizing the health of young people.” The newsstands were later removed from the MRT stations.
The publication prided itself for having a similar style to the New York-based weekly newspaper The Village Voice, with reporters covering social issues and Taiwan’s cultural scene.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas