Several civic groups and journalists yesterday urged the Taipei City Government to designate April 28 “Free Reporters’ Day (自由記者日)” as a reminder for the government to protect the rights of journalists during mass demonstrations.
They said that the Taipei City Police Department failed to respect journalists’ rights when they are gathering news at scenes of conflict, describing several recent cases in which police forcibly removed journalists from protests.
Bees Citizens advocacy group member Yang Shu-ching (楊舒晴) said that although a Journalists’ Day already exists — marked on Sept. 1 each year — the new observance would place equal importance on professional journalists and citizen reporters.
The rights of all citizens who wish to record and document events should be protected, including people participating in demonstrations, Yang said.
The past two days marked the one-year anniversary of the Zhongxiao W Road occupation, when about 20,000 antinuclear protesters paralyzed traffic near Taipei Railway Station in a protest that began on the afternoon of April 27 last year and ended after police officers cleared away protesters in the early morning of April 28.
The incident highlighted concerns about the freedom of the press, after officers wearing riot gear removed journalists from a pedestrian overpass near the protest before enforcing a crackdown on the demonstrators.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, several journalists said that the newsgathering rights of journalists should be protected at scenes of conflict.
Decode Magazine editor-in-chief Edd Jhong (鐘聖雄) said that police officers removed journalists from the overpass last year to prevent them from reporting on the violent removal of protesters, even though the journalists did not interfere with officers carrying out their duties.
“If police want to arrest me, they should do so because of my actions, not my status,” Jhong said, adding that he rejects a distinction between “professional” and citizen or independent reporters.
Other journalists described instances in which they said police officers resorted to violence to prevent coverage of protests or demonstrations.
The groups called on Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to monitor police actions and protect the rights of journalists, citing Constitutional Interpretation No. 689, in which the Council of Grand Justices declared that all citizens — not only professional journalists — have the right to gather and report news.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
RSS