The High Court today dismissed a case in which two people allegedly paid others to post criticism of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office’s Osaka branch over its handling of evacuations from Japan following a 2018 typhoon.
This came after the Constitutional Court last year ruled that insulting public officials is punishable under the Constitution, while defaming a public office is not, sending the case back to the High Court for a retrial.
The case, dubbed the “Kansai Airport incident,” involved Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如), who was indicted over comments online that accused the office of failing to offer timely help to Taiwanese in Japan during Typhoon Jebi, which made landfall in Japan on Sept. 4, 2018.
Photo: Wen Yu-te, Taipei Times
Yang allegedly instructed Tsai Fu-ming (蔡福明) and others to generate discussion on PTT about the event.
Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), who was director-general of the office at the time, committed suicide at his residence eight days later.
In the first trial, Yang and Tsai were each sentenced to six months in jail, commutable to a fine of NT$180,000, for contravening Article 140 of the Criminal Code.
Article 140 stipulates a prison sentence of up to one year or a fine of up to NT$100,000 for “insult[ing] a public official during the discharge of his legal duties or publicly mak[ing] insults about his discharge of such legal duties.”
Yang and Tsai appealed to the High Court, which sentenced them each to five months in jail, commutable to a fine of NT$150,000.
The former ruling sentenced Yang and Tsai for defaming a public office, while the second ruling found them guilty of defaming a public official during the discharge of their duties.
Yang then sought a constitutional interpretation, saying that Article 140 contravenes constitutionally guaranteed free speech.
The Constitutional Court said that Article 140 has two parts, one referring to “slandering or defaming a public official” and one to “slandering or defaming a public office,” and ruled that the first part is punishable under the law while the second part is not.
The High Court then said that after the interpretation, punishments for “slandering or defaming a public official” have “lost their effectiveness.”
It therefore revoked its original ruling, saying the two offenses are no longer punishable.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS