Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) yesterday filed a lawsuit against seven people, including Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), saying they received foreign funding in breach of national security and contravened personal privacy laws through the surveillance of politicians.
The Chinese-language Mirror Daily on Friday last week said Huang allegedly organized a team of reporters and photographers in 2022 to track DPP politicians.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Chen Chun-wei (陳君瑋), Wang submitted a criminal complaint to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against Huang, Kai Ssu International Co (凱思國際) owner Lee Li-chuan (李麗娟), journalist Hsieh Hsing-en (謝幸恩) and four photographers said to be part of the alleged surveillance team.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Chen cited the report as saying that Hsieh allegedly directed four photographers to tail Wang by car for nine days in June last year.
He said the seven contravened provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) and committed offenses against privacy (妨害秘密罪) under the Criminal Code.
Hsieh and the photographers were allegedly hired and paid by Kai Ssu International Co, which Chen said received major funding from Hong Kong, contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法).
Asked about the alleged offenses against privacy, Chen said that a public figure should not have every aspect of his personal life exposed.
“A media team followed Wang for days in cars, photographing even minor infractions such as an unauthorized left turn at a red light. Such pervasive surveillance, disregarding the boundary between public and private activity, clearly contravenes the law and was carried out for political power struggles,” he added.
Huang yesterday dismissed Wang’s complaint as a “frivolous lawsuit” orchestrated by the DPP.
The controversy traces back to June last year, when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) publicly released photographs of Wang’s car allegedly making an illegal left turn. Wang subsequently asked prosecutors to investigate who had been surveilling him.
In late August, prosecutors declined to indict, saying that the surveillance posed no threat to public safety.
The investigation at the time determined that four people had rented a car and claimed to be media staff employed by Kai Ssu International, a company that does not operate any news publication.
Additional reporting by CNA
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