The dispute between Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and The Journalist (新新聞週刊) is likely to be brought to court. Lu reiterated yesterday that she would file a lawsuit against the magazine, which reported that she spread rumors in early November that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was having an extra-marital affair.
"A team of lawyers will definitely be formed by today," Lu said, smiling to the media before attending a seminar yesterday.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lu later canceled a meeting with foreign guests in the Presidential Office and held staff meetings instead in the afternoon to discuss possible legal action and which lawyers to hire, who may include Lu's older bother Lu Chuan-sheng (
The Presidential Office, moreover, released a three-point written statement yesterday evening.
"The Journalist is obliged to publicly play the tape of the phone call Vice President Lu made in early November in order to safeguard people's rights to access of information," the statement said, adding that "if that call was really made by Lu, as president of the magazine, Wang Chien-chuang (王健壯) has stated, there should not be any problem with protecting news sources."
The statement also said that the formation of the lawyers' team was under way and it needed time to study the case and collect evidence before a lawsuit would be filed.
The Journalist, in response, yesterday said that they were well prepared for a confrontation with Lu and had assessed all possible conditions to countersue.
"If it turns into a lawsuit, The Journalist intends to present our evidence in the courthouse. However, we have not ruled out the possibility of making [our evidence] known to the public earlier if necessarily," Wang said yesterday, stressing that the source of the report was "100 percent" not Chou Yu-kou (周玉蔻) who, in a recently published book was the first to make the allegations public.
Chou, during her morning radio show, also said: "Someone is lying and this is a very serious issue." She suggested the Presidential Office form an investigation team to look into the controversy.
Wang added that, before the story was printed, they had checked with at least 20 people who have close connections with Lu from the media, political circles and her friends. Also, they had asked the vice presidential office's director, Tsai Ming-hua (
The Presidential Office, nevertheless, was reported to be conducting an investigation into who received the alleged phone calls from Lu. According to a local media report, a code of "Hu-Hsieh-Chiang (胡憲強)" was made up to represent possible targets which include the editor in chief of Era News (年代新聞), Hu Chun-hsin (胡忠信), the president of the English-language Taiwan News, Yang Hsieh-hung (楊憲宏) and the chief editorial writer of the Chinese-language Taiwan News (台灣時報), Shu Chin-chiang (蘇進強).
Shu, however, yesterday told the Taipei Times that he was not the source of The Journalist's report.
"I have never received any phone call directly from the vice president," Shu said, adding his recent appointment in the human rights group headed by Lu was probably the reason the media associated him with Lu.
Hu had also previously denied media speculation that he was the one Lu talked to. As for Yang, he is currently abroad and, therefore, is unable to be reached.
Meanwhile, a group of "heartbroken mothers" (
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