Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) yesterday promised to launch a probe into alleged heavy-handed treatment of protesters and media by police during the forced demolition of houses in the Huaguang Community (華光) in Taipei on Wednesday.
Showing a video clip of Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) photojournalist Wang Min-wei (王敏為) being manhandled by police officers when taking pictures of officers grabbing Huaguang residents and supporters who tried to stop a demolition squad from getting close to two houses scheduled to be torn down on Wednesday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) yesterday demanded that the Ministry of the Interior launch an investigation and punish officers where necessary.
“Pictures and video clips posted on the Internet show that the police tried several times to stop reporters on the scene from doing their jobs, while many protesters have been treated brutally — including an incident in which a student protester was slapped in the face,” Huang said during a question-and-answer session at the legislative Internal Administration Committee meeting. “This is unacceptable, the ministry must investigate it, and penalize officers responsible for misconduct.”
While saying he was not clear about what really happened, the minister promised to launch a probe, and report to the Internal Administration Committee in one month.
“The Taipei City Police Department and the Special Police Force handled yesterday’s demolition, I don’t have the details about what happened there [in Huaguang Community] yesterday, but I will certainly ask the National Police Agency to look into it,” Lee said. “It should not be a problem for the ministry to report to the committee in a month.”
The committee also adopted a formal solution asking the ministry to investigate the incident, while also making public guidelines for penalties for officers within a week.
Separately yesterday, the Taiwan Press Photographer Association criticized the police for blocking photojournalists from taking pictures during the Huaguang protest.
“It’s part of the job of a photojournalist to be physically present as news events take place. It is regrettable that police officers have attempted to force out photographers on several occasions,” the statement said. “The freedom of the press cannot be sacrificed. Brutally evicting and harassing photojournalists is harmful to our democracy and the right of the public to know.”
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS