Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) at a news conference in Taipei yesterday likened detractors to “mad dogs barking in the street” as he denied allegations of improper influence to help his wife return to work as a district court judge.
His three accusers must issue public apologies within five days or he would file libel lawsuits, Chiu said, adding that the situation arose because of irresponsible reports that “fabricated most of the information.”
Chiu’s statements came one day after pundits on Taiwan Go, a political talk show produced by Sanlih E-Television, accused Chiu of improper influence in 2011.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Attorney Chou Wu-jung (周武榮) and legal expert Huang Yueh-hung (黃越宏) — who publishes Journal on the Rule of Law (法治時報) — told Taiwan Go host Liao Hsiao-chun (廖筱君) that Sung Fu-mei (宋富美) returned to the judiciary and was made district court judge in Taichung after Sung had resigned as a high-court judge in 2001 to avoid a conflict of interest as Chiu was running for his second term as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker.
Liao and Huang attended the news conference, sitting at the back of room as Chiu said that the accusations had no factual basis.
“Most of the time, my attitude when dealing with gossip shows and their irresponsible reporting is to treat it like a mad dog barking at you on the street,” Chiu said. “Of course, you do not bark back, but ignore it and walk away.”
“However, on Taiwan Go, they spoke in conjecture and fabricated content, accusing me of improper influence on my wife’s behalf,” he said. “I am quite disappointed. The show was just the pundits making up stories.”
“They did not provide any factual information about what took place, when, where or with who,” he said.
“Therefore I demand that Liao as host of the show, as well as Huang and Chou, issue public apologies regarding their accusations against me,” he said. “If this is not done, I will sue for libel and will also request financial compensation.”
Chiu said that in 2011 he was dean of the law department at Asia University in Taichung and did not hold an important position at DPP headquarters.
“The ruling party was the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the DPP only had one-quarter of the seats in the legislature. How would it have been possible for me to influence what job my wife was given?” he asked.
Chiu did not answer questions at the news conference.
After Chiu’s departure, Liao spoke to reporters, saying: “It is regretful that the minister did not take questions... If we have done anything wrong, then we welcome a lawsuit, but we wanted to ask if he would be willing to see an investigation into the allegations.”
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS