Green Party Taiwan (GPT) yesterday panned the Huashan 1914 Creative Park administration and Taipei Brick House over what it termed their last-minute cancelation of the party’s reservation of a venue in the park for a press event to present their candidates in the Nov. 29 elections.
After reserving a room at Taipei Brick House and paying the deposit on Monday last week, GPT co-chair Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) said yesterday that the venue contacted the party on Thursday, saying that Taipei Brick House might not be suitable for a political event.
“After negotiations, we agreed to make our event ‘less political,’ and they agreed that we could still have it on Saturday at the venue,” Lee said. “However, on Friday, which was one day before the scheduled event, Taipei Brick House again asked us not to allow our member Hung Chung-yen (洪崇晏) to appear during the event; otherwise, they may cancel the reservation.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Hung is a National Taiwan University student and has participated in political demonstrations.
Recently, he has been accused of having mobilized a protest outside Zhongzheng First Police Precinct headquarters in Taipei and was interrogated by a prosecutor on Thursday.
After further negotiations, Taipei Brick House canceled GPT’s reservation, forcing the party to hold the event elsewhere.
“This is simply unacceptable,” Lee said. “We first checked the venue on Aug. 7, talked and confirmed details about the event with them several times. We made it very clear from the beginning that this is a political party event and they said it would not be a problem.”
“Canceling the reservation a day before the event and forcing us to find another place have caused us significant trouble and [financial] losses; we therefore would like to strongly protest and will ask our lawyers to take care of it,” Lee said.
In response, Wang Jung-wen (王榮文), chairman of the Taiwan Cultural-Creative Development Co, which runs Huashan 1914 Creative Park, said yesterday that political and religious events are prohibited in the park.
“The operation of Taipei Brick House has been outsourced to Taipei Brick House Cultural Co, which usually rents out the space for cultural and art performances and exhibitions,” Wang said.
“Huashan 1914 Creative Park did not know that the company rented the venue to GPT for a political event until we were informed on Thursday; that’s how the dispute happened,” Wang added.
“We are not targeting any particular individual or political party at all,” he added.
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