Charges against a Nantou County student who was allegedly the source of a post that turned out to be a major fake news story have been dropped.
The student had been charged with disseminating disinformation following the suicide of a Japan-based Taiwanese diplomat in September.
The student — a man surnamed Yu (游) from Nantou’s Puli Township (埔里) — was charged with breaching Article 63 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) after investigators alleged he was the source of a post that in September turned out to be fake.
Photo: Lin Tsui-yi, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said that Yu on Sept. 6 had posted on online bulletin board system Professional Technology Temple, claiming that China’s consulate was helping stranded travelers at Kansai International Airport following Typhoon Jebi, while the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office was indifferent to the plight of Taiwanese stranded there.
A Taiwan Nantou District Court judge said that the evidence presented by prosecutors was insufficient to prove that social disturbance had occurred as a result of the post.
During questioning, Yu said he was in Osaka from Aug. 30 to Sept. 12, but denied owning the account used to make the post.
Yu said that his personal information had been used by someone else to open a fake account.
The judge said the evidence showed that the account belonged to Yu, but added that those stranded in Japan at the time only had to endure a long wait and there was no way to prove that the Taiwanese stranded at Osaka’s airport felt fear or panic.
Weng Wei-lun (翁偉倫), a lawyer and former public prosecutor at the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office, said the judge’s position on the case was reasonable, because, although Yu’s post stirred up discontent with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka, it did not invoke public fear.
Despite the judge’s decision not to proceed with a case, Yu would still endure a backlash from the online community and at National Taipei University, where he is a student, Weng said.
National Taipei University would communicate with Yu after classes resume today to try to determine his motivation for making the post and help him understand the severity of making untrue statements on a public forum, university secretary-general Lu Yu-cheng (呂育誠) said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the decision to not proceed with a case against Yu was “displeasing and regretful,” and that it was hard to accept.
The ministry said it would look into what actions could be taken to protect the rights and interests of those who were negatively affected by the disinformation Yu spread.
Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said he was happy the person behind the fake news story was found, so that former director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Su Chii-cherng’s (蘇啟誠) name could be cleared.
Su committed suicide in his residence in Japan on Sept. 14.
Hsieh said that anyone would be furious over the suicide, which resulted from tens of thousands of people directing their condemnation and grievances at the small group of representatives working hard at the Osaka representative office.
Hsieh last month said that he asked for an investigation into the fake news story, but stopped pursuing the issue when he discovered the post was made by a university student.
“Finding heavier laws [with which to charge Yu] is a simple matter, but in the end I used the Social Order Maintenance Act — the lightest option — to pursue charges,” Hsieh said.
The Puli Police Precinct on Saturday said they would respect the court’s decision and would not pursue further charges against Yu.
Additional reporting by Wu Cheng-feng, Weng yu-huang, Peng Wan-hsin and Lin Tsui-yi in Japan
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS