The police chief who arrested three journalists on Thursday night will not be punished, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
The journalists were arrested along with student activists and charged with trespassing on the Ministry of Education’s grounds, with police officers temporarily confiscating their mobile phones and cameras.
“I view this as an unexpected situation and am prepared to shoulder the responsibility myself because there were no clear rules to follow,” said Ko, adding that it would be unfair to for Zhongzheng First Precinct Police Chief Chang Chi-wen (張奇文) to take the blame for the journalists’ arrest.
Photo: CNA
Late on Friday, Ko apologized in a media release for what he said was the police department’s “infringement on press freedom.”
During the incident, the police department was not able to follow his administration’s standard operating procedure for dealing with journalists during protests, which call for an on-site police officer to be appointed as a point man for press relations, he said.
Ko said the reporters should not have been arrested, while avoiding questions on whether they had a right to be in the building. Reporters and police officers have different responsibilities which need to be harmonized, he said.
He said the police department would review procedures for dealing with similar incidents in the future, adding that he would also work with the National Police Agency to clarify the chain of command during future protests.
The Taipei mayor shares command of the city’s police department with the agency.
“While I did not issue the order [to arrest the reporters], I do not know who was behind it and I do not dare to guess,” Ko said.
At one point, Ko called Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) a “hired thug,” who was obligated to press charges but later added that he had misspoken.
He said that he “did not really approve” of the students breaking in to the ministry building, but added that “when the nation is abnormal, it is difficult for every person to act normally.”
In Friday’s media release, he had said the students’ “bravery” was “praiseworthy.”
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS