A court case involving Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) began at the Taipei District Court yesterday.
Yang is accused of heading a group that posted messages online that have been linked to the suicide in 2018 of diplomat Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠).
Yang was a Web manager for Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) 2008 presidential campaign.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Dec. 2 last year indicted Yang over comments online that accused the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Osaka of failing to offer timely help to Taiwanese in Japan during Typhoon Jebi, which made landfall in Japan on Sept. 4, 2018.
Critics have accused the DPP of paying Yang to run the “green camp cyberarmy.”
Yang and the DPP have denied the accusations.
Prosecutors investigated reports that Yang on Sept. 6, 2018, met Tsai Fu-ming (蔡福明), who she allegedly provided with Professional Technology Temple (PTT) accounts, including one named “idcc.”
PTT is the nation’s largest online bulletin board system.
She allegedly instructed Tsai and others to generate discussion in PTT articles about evacuation proceedings at Kansai International Airport in the wake of the storm after it forced the airport’s closure on Sept. 4, 2018.
Messages critical of the official response to Taiwanese stranded at the airport were reported at the time.
The Osaka office was responsible for the travelers.
Su, who was director-general of the Osaka office at the time, committed suicide at his residence eight days later.
Media reports said that his death might have been linked to work pressure caused by public criticism.
Yang denied any wrongdoing in court yesterday.
She said she had instructed people to “clarify false information on the situation” after posts that said China had dispatched buses to the airport to help evacuate people, and had picked up Taiwanese passengers as well as Chinese.
This was later shown to be false reporting.
Prosecutor Chen Chao-shih (陳照世) said that Yang’s and Tsai’s actions were outside the realm of freedom of expression, and had seriously undermined the nation’s authorities.
Tsai and other defendants apart from Yang were not at the hearing yesterday.
Tsai pleaded guilty to related charges in an earlier case.
He has said that Yang instructed him and others to post the messages on PTT.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS