The Taipei Police Department should provide a full explanation for the leaking of a photograph and other questionable conduct during student-led protests leading to some activists entering the Ministry of Education complex in Taipei, student advocates said yesterday.
A group in July entered the ministry building during protests over what critics call “Chinese-centric” changes to high-school curriculum guidelines.
“Why does the police not have the courage to publicize details of what really happened,” student advocate Tsai Yi-chun said yesterday during a protest outside the Zhongzheng First Precinct Police Station.
She criticized the police for failing to publicize the source of a photograph of protesters that appeared on the cover of the Chinese-language China Times.
The photograph was attributed to the Taipei Police Department and showed a group of protesters bound on the floor of Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa’s (吳思華) office.
As many of the people in the photograph were minors photographed without their consent, the image’s release violated rights to privacy, student advocates said.
Student advocate Chen Po-yu (陳柏瑜) said the police had also failed to explain why protesters were handcuffed and denied access to cellphones when they were greatly outnumbered by police.
The measures were disproportionate because the students were unarmed and there was no danger of their fleeing or resisting, he said.
Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice convener Lin Yu-lun (林于倫) said the ministry had gone back on its word.
Chen said charges had been dropped against all but five protesters, all of whom answered a court summons yesterday to face possible charges related to impeding the execution of public business.
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