The Taipei High Administrative Court on Friday ruled against the Ministry of Education and its claim that the Chinese-language Mandarin Daily News (國語日報) is a government-funded institution.
On Sept. 25, 2017, the ministry sent a notice to the Mandarin Daily News — on the grounds that it was a juristic person founded and funded by the government — instructing it to convene a meeting of its board, amend its charter and hold new board elections.
The ministry said that the paper was founded under the then-Nationalist government’s program to promote Mandarin, and that it was registered as a taxable entity on Jan. 1, 1948.
The paper brought the case to court, stating that it is privately funded and should be considered a juristic person dedicated to social welfare and education.
BANKRUPTCY
While the paper received 10,000 in gold yuan (金圓券) and was first published in 1948, it failed after the first issue and declared bankruptcy in 1949, selling off its printing house and dismissing its workers, the court ruling said.
The gold yuan, introduced in 1948, was intended to be a limited currency issued by the Nationalist government in an attempt to rein in hyperinflation of the fabi (法幣), introduced in 1935.
The government-funded Mandarin Daily News collapsed a year after it was founded, the court said.
PRIVATE FUNDING
Whether the paper received funding before it was registered or up until its declaration of bankruptcy from the Taiwan Province Mandarin Promotion Committee up until the committee was abolished in 1999 does not change that the paper received private funding, it said.
The collegiate bench presiding over the case ruled against the ministry, saying that the ministry could not provide proof that the paper was government property or provide a paper trail proving that the government had funded the paper.
The ruling can be appealed.
ELUDING OVERSIGHT?
The ministry later on Friday said that the court had ignored the 83 items of proof and evidence that it submitted.
The paper cannot be allowed to slip further away from governmental oversight, the ministry said, adding that it would appeal the ruling.
The paper said that it is too bad that the ministry does not respect the judiciary, even after the civil and administrative courts ruled against its claims in 2017.
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