Freedom of speech does not include the right to purposefully inflict harm on victims of domestic abuse while hiding in anonymity, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉) said yesterday, one day after he had urged the closure of a bulletin board system on which people had accusations against DPP Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜), who is accusing her boyfriend of domestic abuse.
Freedom of speech and the diversity of opinions should be protected, and Taiwanese libel laws take this into account by giving special protection to criticism of public figures, Ho said.
However, insults based on events in public figures’ private lives are not protected, he said, adding that people who urge that intimate pictures of abuse victims be leaked are further traumatizing the victims.
Ho made the remarks to clarify earlier calls for the closure of the Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest online bulletin board system.
“PTT should be shut down,” Ho said on Friday. “Reading PTT comments, I found nothing but vulgar language, description of male or female genitalia and fake stuff that cannot be verified.”
He made the remarks in connection with Kao’s accusations against her boyfriend Raphael Lin (林秉樞).
Mirror Media magazine on Tuesday reported that Lin had allegedly locked Kao up in a hotel room for two days and threatened to leak intimate images of her if she does not stay in a relationship with him.
An account on a PTT board named “Crazy Winnie” later posted claims about the incident, apparently trying to clear Lin of the allegations
PTT on Thursday banned the account for 10 years, saying that the person behind Crazy Winnie held multiple accounts.
A PTT moderator called “q347” urged users to save messages they had received from Crazy Winnie claiming that the account holder had sent private video footage of Kao to the authorities for investigation.
Additional reporting by Yang Hsin-hui
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS