With Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) one of the three groups seeking to buy Hong Kong-based Next Media Group’s four Taiwanese media outlets, several environmentalists groups yesterday held a protest against the buyout plan in front of the FPG’s headquarters in Taipei, saying the buyout was likely to kill freedom of speech in the media.
The NT$17.5 billion (US$601.2 million) buyout plan of the four outlets — the Apple Daily, the Sharp Daily, Next Magazine and Next TV — could be sold to a consortium comprised of Want Want China Times Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), Chinatrust Charity Foundation chairman Jeffery Koo Jr (辜仲諒) and Formosa Plastics Group chairman William Wong (王文淵).
“No to FPG eating the Apple,” “against the habitual offender of the environment,” “freedom of speech,” “environmental justice,” the groups repeatedly shouted out in front of FPG’s headquarters.
Photo: CNA
Several representatives of the groups lay on the ground, pretending to be poisoned, after eating a red apple given to them by an activist dressed as the Grim Reaper.
They said the play symbolized how dissenting opinions against the FPG may be silenced if it becomes an investor in the media outlets.
“For the media to turn from a public tool that speaks for the people to a tool that serves tyrannical corporations is something that the people cannot tolerate,” Citizen of the Earth Taiwan chairperson Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) said.
Photo: CNA
The FPG’s plants contribute to a large proportion of the carbon emissions in Taiwan, Lee said, adding that if it buys the media outlets, it would become impossible for the media to truthfully report any industrial accidents that may occur again at FPG’s petrochemical plants or the latest progress of its development projects at the environmental impact assessment meetings.
The groups said the FPG has already shown its repressive attitude toward opposing voices, pointing to a lawsuit FPG filed earlier this year after an academic research project showed the possible relationship between cancer and gases emitted from the company’s sixth naphtha cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮).
The activists also mentioned a resident in Yunlin County, who received a legal letter from the company after he expressed suspicions that the naphtha cracker might be damaging his health.
“The government should review such an important media acquisition case carefully, from the perspective of the public interest and social safety” Campaign for Media Reform convener Lin Li-yun (林麗雲) said.
Citing an example of the Guardian Media Group in the UK, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Foundation attorney Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) said that if FPG insists on investing in the Next Media Group, it should hand over its media operations to a trust foundation, so that investors could not directly interfere with editorial independence.
FPG vice president Lin Sang-chi (林善志) said because the buyout plan is not settled, the company would not make any comment at this point.
In response to questions on how the company views alleged health damage to residents in Yunlin and Changhua, Lin said the correlation still needs to be proven by long-term investigations.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS