Several women’s advocacy groups are urging the public to boycott the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) in protest against several articles that they said espoused discriminatory views against women.
Controversy raged following a recent spat between the Liberty Times and former TVBS news anchor Lee Yen-chiou (李艷秋), with Lee accusing the newspaper of using sexually offensive content to launch personal attacks against her.
The Liberty Times issued an official apology to Lee on Friday last week, but the women’s rights advocates said the apology lacked sincerity.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Led by the Taiwan Coalition Against Violence, several women’s groups yesterday filed a report against the Liberty Times with the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee, following a wave of criticism against the newspaper over the past week.
The heated debate was triggered by a May 12 report published on the Liberty Times Web site about a severe shortage of news anchors at China Television, with the article describing a recently employed anchor poached from another television station as “flat-chested.”
The report, titled “China Television poaches flat-chested anchor to save crisis amid shortage,” sparked a flurry of criticism from media professionals and women’s groups.
It provoked an angry response from Lee, who wrote an opinion piece in the Chinese-language China Times, accusing the Liberty Times of objectifying women.
The Liberty Times published a second report on Thursday last week that expressed curiosity about Lee’s physique and quoted fictional content about Lee from a pornographic novel written by Chinese netizens.
Lee filed a lawsuit against the Liberty Times, but withdrew all charges after the newspaper issued an official apology.
The debate also took on a political undertone, with writer Huang Chih-hsien (黃智賢) on Monday accusing many women’s rights groups of shying away from the incident because of Lee’s pan-blue leanings.
“It is unbelievable that to this day, we are still judging an anchor’s credentials by the size of her bust. This inflicts utmost harm to women’s right to work,” Sinoseca Social Welfare Association’s Jennifer Wang (王如玄) told reporters at a news conference yesterday.
She said the report could warrant fines from the Taipei City Government for violating the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法).
Taiwan Alliance for the Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare secretary-general Yeh Da-hua (葉大華) urged the Liberty Times to establish disciplinary guidelines to put a stop to discriminatory reporting.
She pointed out a lack of collective disciplinary guidelines in the media industry, with the quality of journalism backsliding with the advent of fast-paced, Internet-based journalism, leaving little time for journalists to find reliable sources.
Liberty Times spokesperson Jackson Su (蘇宇暉) yesterday said that the newspaper would reflect on its mistakes and improve the quality of the paper’s online content.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to 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), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner