The Ministry of Education (MOE) on Friday said that it is not interfering with the press freedom of the Chinese-language Mandarin Daily News, following criticism over its request to the Taipei District Court on Thursday that it dissolve the newspaper’s board of directors.
The ministry asked the court to dissolve the board, because internal disagreements have made its operations difficult, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan, adding that the request was made based on the government’s involvement in the founding of the children’s newspaper in 1948.
The ministry asked the court to appoint an interim board to enable the publication to resume normal operations, a process that Pan estimated will take three to six months.
Pan said that the ministry will not be involved in the management of the newspaper or infringe upon its freedoms, but made the request for the good of the newspaper’s employees and the public.
Mandarin Daily News chairman Hung Kuo-liang (洪國樑) rejected the government’s involvement, saying that its funding was used up by 1950 and all the original employees have left the company.
The current company is the result of board of directors’ hard work, he said.
The ministry responded in a statement issued on Friday, saying that the government funding, as well as its provision of equipment and other resources, cannot simply be dismissed.
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