Members of the press yesterday accused police of attacking them, when law enforcement officers forcibly evicted protesters occupying the Executive Yuan.
“Reporters, please leave the place. We will soon begin to disperse the crowd,” police officers said to the dozens of reporters at the back gate of the Executive Yuan at about 1am yesterday, as they prepared to evict protesters occupying the compound.
Shortly afterward, police began pushing reporters out of the gate. Moreover, contrary to their earlier statement that members of the media could stand right outside the gate, they kept on pushing the reporters to move further away.
Photo: Wally Santana, AP
The move triggered protests from the reporters, many of whom accused the police of violating freedom of the press. Those who insisted on going inside or just standing by the gate were immediately surrounded by officers and pushed out.
As the police began to disperse the crowd inside the compound, a number of reporters were also dragged or attacked by officers.
“When officers approached me, I showed them my press pass, and repeatedly told them that I am a reporter, but an officer from Nangang Police Precinct would not listen to me,” a newspaper reporter surnamed Chu (朱) said after he was evicted. “He kicked me in the back and hit me with his fist.”
Not long after, shouting could be heard from the Executive Yuan’s back gate.
“How could you do this to journalists? You hit my cameraman, pulled him away, and then also dragged me away from the scene,” a TV reporter yelled at officers near the gate. “You always say you are protecting reporters. Is this how you protect us?”
More than a dozen similar incidents were reported, with a number of reporters suffering serious injuries such as bone fractures.
At nearly 5am, when police were moving on to evict protesters occupying an annex building, a line of officers pushed forward, forcing reporters away from the scene and into the pressroom.
Some later heard reports that police had decided to clear the pressroom as well. However, a senior reporter helped to negotiate with police to allow reporters to stay in the room.
The Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ) yesterday condemned the police for using violence against members of the media.
“The ATJ has received more than 10 cases of attacks on media reporters by the police during the student occupation of the Executive Yuan. The ATJ condemns the police for using violence against the media and violating the freedom of the press,” an ATJ statement said.
“We also strongly protest the police’s decision to disperse media reporters before dispersing the protesters. We suspect that the objective is to block the media from reporting the truth. This is a serious violation of the freedom of the press, and the worse example set in a democratic society,” the association said.
Later yesterday, when asked by the Taipei Times about the police action, which blocked reporters from covering their move to break up the protest, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said he told National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) that the police had to make sure to ask reporters to leave before they started crowd dispersal measures so that reporters would not get hurt by water cannons.
“If there were reporters who were pushed when they were trying to secure a better place to take photos, I am sorry, but I wanted every reporter to be safe while they they were working,” Jiang said.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS