Legal reform groups and a law professor yesterday condemned Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) and the Taipei police force over abuses of power and initiating litigation against protesters and three journalists in an incident on Thursday night in which activists broke into the Ministry of Education building to protest over proposed adjustments to curriculum guidelines for high-school textbooks.
Wu said that 33 individuals, including the three journalists, were to be charged.
Human-rights lawyer Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴) said the police had clearly overstepped their bounds and had not only infringed upon freedom of the press, but some police officers might have violated the law in confining the freedom of movement of members of the public.
“The intent of the law is to punish people who intrude into properties without good reason or cause. However, the journalists were doing their job, gathering news; they had legitimate reasons to be there,” Chan said.
“The police forcibly confiscated mobile phones, cameras and other tools used by the journalists to gather news. The journalists were then prevented from contacting anybody. These are violations of confining the movement of citizens. I strongly recommend the three journalists take up litigation against the police,” Chan added.
National Taiwan University law professor Chen Chih-lung (陳志龍) also criticized the questionable application of judicial power.
“The journalists were doing media work, for the benefit of thepublic’s right to know. That was why they entered the education ministry to take photographs and make video recordings,” he said.
Although their actions could be construed as intrusion of property, the law does grant journalists the right to gather news, and the police officers’ actions in obstructing their work could be construed as unlawful, Chen said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS