Singaporean entrepreneur Joseph Phua (潘杰賢) yesterday said he is to launch a new publication with 96 percent of Apple Daily (Taiwan)’s original staff, as critics continued to call for government scrutiny.
Phua, founder of the streaming platform 17Live, held a news conference yesterday to announce the establishment of Next Apple News.
Phua vowed to refrain from using Apple Daily (Taiwan)’s brand, Web site and assets, and would not have access to personal information.
Photo: CNA
He also promised that Next Apple News would maintain neutrality and abide by the law.
The Web site of Apple Daily (Taiwan) — Apple Online — issued a statement yesterday, saying that it would stop updating content from 11:59pm today.
Apple Daily (Taiwan) said it was sorry that it had to bid farewell to its readers due to a lack of working capital, but added that Next Apple News would continue to shoulder the same responsibility to expose societal injustices.
It also invited people from different ideologies to share their advice with the new company.
“Every piece of your criticism will motivate Next Apple News to do better as it has been for Apple Daily (Taiwan) for the past 19 years,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Economic Democracy Union yesterday asked Apple Daily (Taiwan) to destroy its news material and draw up regulations regarding how personal information would be handled after the business closes.
It also called on the Ministry of Culture to supervise the process.
Apple Daily (Taiwan) in a statement on Wednesday last week said that personnel data would be archived for five to seven years before being destroyed, its fiscal and tax information would be archived for five to 10 years before being destroyed, and the data of its subscribers and members, as well as its news material, would be archived forever.
The union said that archiving is different from destroying, so the handling of Apple Daily (Taiwan) might potentially contravene Paragraph 3, Article 11 of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
It would continue to monitor whether Phua and Next Apple News engage in illegal practices or hurt Taiwan’s democracy, it added.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS