Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that the administration would do its best to uphold reporters’ rights, including during President’s Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) transit stops in the US next month.
Wang’s remarks came in the wake of criticism of the Presidential Office’s request on Thursday asking the media not to file reports during Ma’s transit stops in the US, saying it was a “precedent” set during the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
Ma is scheduled to make his first state visit from Aug. 12 to Aug. 19 to attend the inauguration of Paraguayan president-elect Fernando Lugo on Aug. 15 and Dominican Republic president-elect Leonel Fernandez on Aug. 16. Ma will spend the night of Aug. 13 in Los Angeles before heading to Paraguay, and will transit through San Francisco on his return.
A Presidential Office official said yesterday that the request was a result of misunderstanding.
Earlier yesterday, Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of Culture and Communications, said that the Presidential Office had misinterpreted the “precedent” the DPP administration had set.
“They [the US government] always request that no public appearances be scheduled for the president during his stay in the US. That does not mean reporters cannot write and file their stories,” Cheng said.
“The Ma administration’s lack of experience in handling the president’s overseas visits is demonstrated by its misinterpretation of ‘no public activities’ as ‘no news coverage,’” he said.
As freedom of speech was one of the most important indicators of Taiwan’s democracy, the Ma administration has made itself a laughing stock by restricting journalists, Cheng said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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