Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized radio talk host Clara Chou (周玉蔻), saying that she engaged in “groundless and malignant slander” against him.
Ma made the remarks during a hearing on his lawsuit against Chou at the Taiwan High Court in Taipei.
According to Ma, Chou has since December 2014 repeatedly slandered him by claiming on political talk shows that he has accepted NT$200 million (US$6.3 million) from Ting Hsin International Group to cover up a scandal involving edible oils.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Ma said that Chou, through such TV appearances, was able to make NT$1 million.
Having been a civil servant for more than 30 years, Ma said “fiscal integrity” was his life, adding that he could not accept the district court’s ruling that Chou was not culpable and therefore he filed an appeal to the Taiwan High Court.
The courts are a bastion of protection for the freedom of speech, but it should not be a guarantor for the abuse of such liberties, Ma said, adding the Republic of China (ROC) is a nation that is governed by law and should not tolerate the “special few” who are able to slander others without proof.
Chou told reporters after leaving the session that Ma’s speech was very emotional.
“That Ma has turned toward personal insults in court saddens me. I am further surprised that he treats journalism a tool for money. His remarks about me show the naivete and ignorance of Ma in terms of judicial law,” Chou said.
The collegiate bench at the Taiwan High Court yesterday summoned My-Formosa.com vice chairman Wu Tzu-chia (吳子嘉) and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) for questioning.
Wu said he had evidence that the Ma campaign team received NT$1 billion in political donations from Ting Hsin, adding that the funds were paid to the team and not to Ma.
When asked by Judge Chen Hsiao-pei (陳筱佩) to state his source, Wu said he would rather be fined than reveal his sources.
Hsieh said that the fomer Ma administration should have been more active when the Ting Hsin food scandal broke in 2014.
Hsieh said his feelings regarding such a letdown caused him to hypothesize that if someone took political donations from the company, it would be difficult to carry through the public’s self-imposed ban on Ting Hsin products.
However, Hsieh said his comments were not backed by any evidence.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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