A DPP legislator accused a monthly magazine aimed mainly at foreigners of carrying sex ads that are hurting Taiwan's image.
DPP Legislator Lai Chin-lin (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"It is intolerable that people take advantage of freedom of speech while actually trying to promote sexual services through advertisements like these," Lai said.
Saying the magazine's ads are damaging the country's reputation, Lai said, "It [the monthly] is more shameful than Paradise in Taiwan (極樂台灣), a Japanese-language tourist guidebook. After all, the latter was published by Japanese,while the monthly is published by we Taiwanese."
Lai made the remarks at a press conference co-hosted by The End Child Prostitution Association in Taiwan (終止童妓協會) and the Cultural and Educational Foundation for the Blind (愛盲文教基金會) at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning.
His remarks referred to massage advertisements in the magazine, which is produced by a local private publisher.
This Month in Taiwan was first published on Jan. 1, 1974, and claims a monthly circulation of around 40,000. The publication is distributed to industrial zones, the nation's top 500 companies, foreign firms, hotels, airports, clubs, conference organizations, trade offices, airlines, restaurants, embassies, consulates and overseas government institutions. Most of its readers are foreigners.
Lee Li-fen (
"In February's edition for example, you can find nearly 50 massage advertisements, which are actually implying adult services, from page 94 to page 101," Lee said.
Lee said the association's employees have tried to determine whether these "massage services" are actually offering massages by calling the numbers in the advertisements. According to Lee, those who answered the phone all claimed to be providing massage services and said the words implying adult services were only used to lure customers.
The Taipei City Government's Department of Information yesterday ordered This Month in Taiwan to stop printing these kinds of massage advertisements or face fines ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$600,000.
According to a department press release, these advertisements must be suspended immediately because they imply pornography and are damaging to the country's reputation.
A spokesman for the monthly, who wished to be identified only by his surname, Ho (
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