Academics yesterday hit back at Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai’s (蔡正元) threat to cut the budget of Academia Sinica’s Institutum Jurisprudentiae, after researchers spoke out against Want Want China Times Group’s (旺旺中時集團) plan to purchase a cable services network.
Want Want’s plan to acquire the cable TV services owned by China Network Systems (CNS, 中嘉網路), a NT$76 billion (US$2.57 billion) merger that could affect a quarter of television-owning households nationwide, has sparked concern among the public, rights activists and academics who fear that it could lead to a media monopoly, which would compromise freedoms of the press and of expression.
Upset that many Academia Sinica researchers — especially those from the Institutum Jurisprudentiae — have opposed the merger, Tsai said at the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee meeting last week that he would propose cutting the budget for the institute, adding that academics should not be involved in a “purely commercial merger” and that they were politically motivated.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
Academics yesterday said that Tsai’s threat was a breach of freedom of expression.
“It’s a positive thing for academics to be concerned about public issues and make comments about them,” Academia Sinica’s Institute of Sociology research fellow Lin Thung-hong (林宗弘) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan. “It’s regrettable that politicians are trying to curb academics’ freedom to speak on public issues.”
Lin added that if big businesses and politicians worked together to restrict academics’ freedom of speech through judicial or legislative means, “it would spark a huge crisis in Taiwan.”
Chen Kui-hsien (陳貴賢), a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, accused “some politicians” of “trying to make academics purely academic through threats to cut budgets.”
“We have to let the politician know that what he is doing is beyond the power of a legislator,” Chen said. “We need more academics to play a professional and active role in public affairs.”
Wu Rwei-ren (吳叡人), a member of Academia Sinica’s Liberty Society, called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as the KMT chairman, to clearly speak out against curbing freedom of expression and to stop KMT lawmakers such as Tsai from threatening academics.
Asked about the academics’ protest, Tsai said that even if Want Want China Times Group is indeed pro-China, there is no law stipulating that a pro-China group could not engage in the media business.
Tsai said he was not taking the side of Want Want China Times Group. He said he was merely confining the discussion to the matter at hand and that it was the people at the Academia Sinica who were not clear what the issues are.
The Chinese-language China Times, a subsidiary of Want Want China Times Group, ran an opinion piece yesterday saying it was within a lawmaker’s authority to cut a government agency’s budget, but that it would also need to go through a collegiate system in the legislature.
It added that academics clamor for freedom of expression and yet are oblivious to others’ rights, with their launching of a petition to exert pressure on Tsai.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
The Thai government on Friday announced that Taiwanese would be allowed to stay in the country for up to 60 days per entry, under the Southeast Asian country’s visa-free program starting from today. Taiwan is among 93 countries included in the Thai visa-waiver program, which has been expanded from 57 countries, with the visa-exempt entry extended from 30 to 60 days. After taking office last year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed to grant more visa waivers to foreign travelers as part of efforts to stimulate tourism. The expanded visa-waiver program was on Friday signed by Thai Minister of the Interior Anutin
PEACE AND SECURITY: China’s military ambitions present ‘the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the world, Japan’s annual defense white paper said yesterday Japan yesterday warned that China risked escalating tensions with Taiwan with an increase in military exercises that appeared aimed in part at readying Beijing’s forces for a possible invasion. Japan’s annual assessment of security threats, including those posed by China, North Korea and Russia, comes as Taiwan closely monitors Chinese People’s Liberation Army air and sea exercises, including one with the Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The drills are the latest in a series including maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait last year that a senior US general said would be key to any invasion. “Because of that increase in military activity,
CHIPS AND DEFENSE: Trump said the US had lost its chip business and Taipei should pay it for defense, and added that ‘we’re no different than an insurance company’ Taiwan-US relations are solid, and both sides are in agreement that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region are everyone’s concern, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday following comments by former US president Donald Trump that Taiwan “should pay” for US defense. Taiwan is thankful to the US for supporting Taiwan’s bid to participate in international organizations, Cho told a news conference in Taipei. “I know the people very well, respect them greatly. They did take about 100 percent of our chip business,” Trump told Bloomberg on June 25 in an interview that was published on Tuesday. “I think
SECURITY CONCERNS: An FBI agent said it was surprising that the shooter, whose motive remains unknown, was able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him On the heels of an apparent attempt to kill him, former US president Donald Trump yesterday called for unity and resilience as shocked leaders across the political divide recoiled from the shooting that left him injured, but “fine,” and the shooter and a rally-goer dead. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting His aides said he was in “great spirits” and doing well. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place,” he