The Taiwan High Court yesterday ruled against former National Security Council secretary-general King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) in a libel suit he filed against award-winning screenwriter and author Neil Peng (馮光遠) in connection with comments the author made about the nature of King’s relationship with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
The High Court ruled that, in the context of Peng’s Facebook comments, the “special relationship” that Peng described between King and Ma was not centered on their sexual orientation, but their personal relationship, which Peng said had led to King’s appointment to several government positions.
Peng’s comments thereby did not constitute libel, the court said.
The Taipei District Court made a similar ruling in August last year.
Meanwhile, the High Court ruled that words like “idiot,” “bitch” and “asshole” in Peng’s Facebook posts, though mean-spirited, were not “empty slander,” but commentaries directed at specific incidents and therefore did not constitute public insults against King.
In a Facebook message posted in 2012, Peng insinuated that King’s “Brokeback” relationship with Ma had helped him secure government posts without having any background in the fields, referring to Ang Lee’s (李安) movie about a homosexual love story, Brokeback Mountain.
The ruling marked King’s eighth loss out of nine suits he has filed since 1997, with one suit against People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) withdrawn in 2011.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
A court has approved Kaohsiung prosecutors’ request that two people working for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Dai-hua (林岱樺) be detained, as a probe into two cases allegedly involving her continues. The request was made on Friday, after prosecutors raided Lin’s two offices and the staffers’ residences, and questioned five on suspicion of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例). The people included the directors of Lin’s Daliao (大寮) and Linyuan (林園) district offices in Kaohsiung, surnamed Chou (周) and Lin (林) respectively, as well as three other staffers. The prosecutors’ move came after they interrogated Lin Dai-hua on Wednesday. She appeared solemn following
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
RSS