A business mogul who recently ignited a firestorm of criticism over his remarks about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests yesterday published an open letter in one of his newspapers saying the public should not doubt his commitment to democracy and freedom of speech.
Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), chairman of the media conglomerate Want Want Group and the Chinese-language China Times, said he was upset over the recent controversy regarding his statements that the 1989 crackdown in Beijing did not constitute a massacre.
“From the bottom of my heart, I am very sad that the intellectual community has decided to boycott the China Times because of a misleading report that was obviously trying to hurt me,” Tsai said in the letter, published on page two of the China Times.
Tsai was referring to a recent interview with the Washington Post in which he appeared to say that the reports of a “massacre” were false.
According to the Washington Post, in an article written by Pulitzer-prize winning correspondent Andrew Higgins based on an interview he conducted, Tsai said in 1989 he was struck by footage of a lone protester standing in front of a People’s Liberation Army tank, before adding that the man was not killed showed that reports of a massacre were not true.
“I realized that not that many people could really have died,” Tsai was quoted as saying.
His comments sparked strong criticism among academics, journalists and human rights activists in Taiwan, including Wang Dan (王丹), an exiled student leader of the 1989 protests.
In addition, more than 60 local academics and civic group members launched a campaign on Tuesday to boycott the China Times and demanded that Tsai clearly explain his views to the public as promised.
However, in yesterday’s letter, Tsai said he could not keep that promise because the organizers of the campaign had already developed a bias against him.
“The group has prepared certain ‘topics’ for me to answer, which makes it an ‘open trial’ against me personally, instead of a dialogue,” he said. “How can I respond positively?”
In its boycott petition, the group raised a number of questions, including the issue of how media moguls should deal with editorial judgement and freedom of speech.
That question was in reference to one of Tsai’s comments in the Washington Post article that journalists are free to criticize, but they “need to think carefully before they write” and avoid “insults” that cause offense.
Meanwhile, in his open letter, Tsai offered to apologize if anything he said during the interview was disrespectful to the “mainland compatriots who suffered during the Tiananmen incident” or had hurt his Taiwanese compatriots.
“I love Taiwan,” he said. “I have always respected press freedom.”
In response, the civic group said they did not accept Tsai’s explanations because he had once again used one of his media outlets as his mouthpiece.
“May I ask what, or who does the China Times represent?” said Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), president of the Taipei Society, of which Wang is member.
“The letter only proves that our decision to boycott was the right one,” Huang said. “Tsai’s letter is a well-written article — that’s all.”
The latest issue of the Chinese-language Business Today quoted Higgins as saying that the Washington Post stood by the story, adding that the article did not take Tsai’s comments out of context.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
RSS