The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office is planning to set up a “podium of freedom” at the 228 Peace Memorial Park where people can gather and publicly voice their opinions.
Taking a leaf from the Speakers’ Corner, a site for public speeches and debates in London’s Hyde Park, the office on Monday said that the podium would be set up at the plaza in front of the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum in the park.
A historical site that is adjacent to several government agencies, the park is a popular venue for public assemblies, so setting up the podium there would be symbolically significant and in line with public demand, the office said.
The announcement follows criticism of the office by city councilors across party lines after it last month appealed a court ruling not to fine Amis singer Panai Kusui and her husband, Nabu Husungan Istanda, for holding public gatherings in the park without an official permit.
Panai and her allies are fighting a regulation enacted by the Council of Indigenous Peoples in February 2017 that defines and zones what can be classified as “traditional territories and lands,” as it excludes privately owned land, thereby limiting where Aborigines can hold traditional activities.
As of yesterday, the protest had been going on for 1,296 days.
City officials fined Panai NT$7,200 last year for contravening Article 13 of the Taipei City Park Management Ordinance (臺北市公園管理自治條例) by setting up tables, chairs, boxes, cabinets and structures in the park without permission.
However, the Taipei District Court ruled in favor of Panai in her appeal on July 27, saying that she was exercising her freedom of speech without hindering public passage through the park or damaging its facilities.
The office appealed the ruling last month, drawing criticism from several city councilors, who cited court opinions that parks and roads are traditionally places for public forums and said that the appeal goes against Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) description of the city as “friendly to human rights and diversity.”
Once the podium is established, it would be open to the public from 8am to 10pm every day, but audio amplifiers and similar devices are banned to avoid disturbing other park visitors and the National Taiwan University Hospital nearby, it said.
If the effect is good, the office would set up more podiums in other parks, it added.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS