President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday expressed regret over the fate of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who was given jail time for refusing to divulge the name of a source in an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name.
Chen made the remarks while attending a conference hosted by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Taipei yesterday.
Chen said he looks forward to the day when Taiwan enjoys the the same level of press freedoms that are enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and called the Times journalist's jailing "regrettable."
"Given the recent incident [the jailing of the reporter] for refusing to reveal her source, it is regrettable that the US government seems to have not fully implemented freedom of the press, as guaranteed by the First Amendment," Chen said.
Miller, a veteran reporter who covered the Middle East, was locked up on Wednesday and will be detained until she agrees to reveal her source in the controversial case, or until the mandate of the grand jury probing the matter expires in October.
Chen told conference attendants that with the lifting of martial law in 1987 and the removal of a ban on political parties and press restrictions, the holding of direct presidential election in 1996 and the transfer of power in 2000, the media has been a "catalyst and watchdog" in the country's transformation to a democratic system.
The president went so far as to say that given the choice between national security and press freedom, he would choose a free press over security issues. He then acknowledge that not everyone would agree with this view.
Chen also said that the freedom of the press is an indispensable link to the development of democracy, and called on the Taiwanese people to respect the press and for press freedoms to be protect by law.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS