Government officials yesterday failed to give a clear account of who was behind the release of a story by the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA), which said early yesterday morning that the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) was sorry for causing Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) to misunderstand its weather forecast.
The story, released at 12:31am yesterday, reported that the CWB offered an apology to Liu for causing him to misspeak, after its false briefing that Fung-wong, then classified as a tropical storm, was a typhoon.
Liu made the verbal error on Saturday afternoon after being briefed by weather forecast center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) at 2pm and said afterwards when asked to comment on his slip that the CWB should provide weather information in lay terms.
When interviewed by cable TV about Liu’s mistake, Wu said that Liu had “misheard” him as he had said that the tropical storm was strengthening and was on the threshold of becoming a typhoon.
The CWB classified Fung-wong as a typhoon at 8:30pm on Saturday night.
The source of the apology was unclear as it was more than 35 hours after Liu had misspoken and the story was apparently from the Government Information Office (GIO) and not the CWB.
Even though the apology was written in the name of the CWB, it was sent out by the GIO through a CNA reporter who covers the Executive Yuan beat, triggering speculation that the GIO had offered the apology to Liu on the CWB’s behalf without the bureau’s knowledge.
GIO Minister Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said yesterday that the GIO released the statement at the request of Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), whose ministry supervises the CWB, and she assumed that Mao had informed the CWB of the move in advance.
Shih said that Mao had asked CWB personnel stationed in the typhoon disaster prevention center to handle the statement and had GIO personnel who were also on duty in the center to send it out.
She said that the GIO didn’t assume the identity of another agency to issue a press release.
CWB Director-General Hsin Chiang-lin (辛江霖), however, gave a different account when asked by reporters at a press conference.
Cable TV station TVBS reported that Hsin said he had told Mao that the CWB needed to offer an apology to Liu, but he didn’t see a copy of the statement before it was released.
Hsin and his deputy Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯) were both unable to say who wrote the statement when asked by reporters.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS