Accusing Next Media Group chairman Jimmy Lai (黎智英), Next Media Group executive director Cassian Cheung (張嘉聲) and Chinatrust Charity Foundation chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) of lying to the public, the Apple Daily union group yesterday demanded a public apology from the trio.
The allegations came after Next Media Group announced the sale off its four core subsidiaries in Taiwan, but subsequently denied the involvement of Tsai Eng-ming (蔡衍明), the Want Want China Times Group’s (旺旺中時集團) chairman, in the purchase.
Next Media, in an announcement filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Oct. 17, confirmed that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Koo, who has agreed to purchase the Apple Daily, the Sharp Daily, Next Magazine and Next TV.
Koo’s co-investors in the deal include Formosa Plastics Group chairman William Wong (王文淵) and a Singapore-based private equity firm.
Lai said in an interview with the Apple Daily published on Oct. 18 that he decided to finalize the sale of the four media outlets after ensuring that none of the funding would come from Tsai.
The Chinese-language Wealth Magazine reported in its latest edition on Thursday last week that Tsai had provided NT$9 billion (US$310 million) of the NT$17.5 billion offered for the purchase.
The government should investigate the source of the funding and if there were any illegalities, and the sale should be prohibited from going through, the union group said in a statement yesterday, adding that the government should strive for the separation of the financial sector and other industries, and avoid media monopolization.
The union called on investors to refrain from implementing policies that might affect wages, benefits and labor rights of the 1,300 workers at Apple Daily, adding that it would be talking with the new investors as soon as possible to negotiate a collective agreement and sign an editorial statute.
Article 2 of the Collective Agreement Act (團體協約法) states that a collective agreement is a written agreement reached between an employer or employer organization with legal status and a labor union in accordance with the Labor Union Act (工會法) for the purpose of governing labor relations and other related matters.
If the new investors do not agree, the union said it would bring the case to the attention of the Council of Labor Affairs on grounds of inappropriate action.
The union added it will stage a sit-in protest starting at 9pm today to make its wishes known.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift