Police should drop “harassment suits” against activists for Hydis-related protests, labor activists said yesterday during a protest outside the Taipei District Court.
“Even if marching causes temporary inconvenience to social order, we were right to stand up to the evil corporation, the Yuen Foong Yu [YFY] Group, that has influenced hundreds of workers,” Taiwan Higher Education Union organization department director Lin Po-yi (林柏儀) said, promising that activists would “fight to the end.”
“Our social movement should be tolerated in a society which is reasonably free,” he said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Lin was one of eight people who were charged with causing “humiliation” and property damage, obstructing public business and demonstrating without a permit.
They were supporting South Korean workers in a protest against the closure of YFY’s (Hydis) plasma display manufacturing factory in South Korea.
“Our nation has never cared about resolving problems — it only cares about ‘resolving’ those who bring them up,” said Chen Hsiu-lian (陳秀蓮) a member of the National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories, who was against the government for deporting South Korean protestors from the nation and blacklisting them to prevent them from returning.
“This sort of nitpicking makes it appear that the nation is trying to use all sorts of ‘crimes’ to suppress demonstrations — none of the charges are equivalent to the small amount of disorder or inconvenience created by the value of freedom of speech,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights legal specialist Hsu Jen-shuo (許仁碩) said.
He said police had started using “harassment suits” against demonstrators because the failure rate of lawsuits under the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) had increased over the past 10 years.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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