A Judicial Yuan plan to budget NT$120 million (US$4.15 million) next year for a public marketing campaign to promote a lay judge system is an attempt to mislead society on “wrongly implemented” reforms, a civic group said yesterday.
The Taiwan Jury Association, which has been pushing for a jury system instead of the government’s preferred lay judge approach, said the Judicial Yuan should face up to the core judicial reform issues that need to be addressed.
The Judicial Yuan should promote impartial trials and improve the judiciary for those working within it, rather than throwing money at “propaganda,” the association said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The Judicial Yuan has proposed a budget of NT$220 million for next year, of which NT$120 million was earmarked for the promotional campaign.
The campaign would feature television, film, radio and online components, and the Judicial Yuan plans to hire Internet celebrities and a professional spokesperson, association president Wu Ching-chin (吳景欽) said.
“A recently proposed amendment to the Criminal Compensation Act (刑事補償法) would award victims of judicial miscarriage between NT$160,000 and NT$360,000,” New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said. “How is it that the government can only provide such a small amount to those who have gone through such suffering, while spending such a large amount on propaganda?”
The Judicial Yuan must squarely face its errors to gain the public’s trust, he said.
For example, it could systematically research what led to miscarriages of justice, Chiu said.
The Judicial Yuan should explain why such a large budget is needed for a promotional campaign, association founder Jerry Cheng (鄭文龍) said, adding that over the course of a year fewer than 600 cases would be tried using lay judges.
“If no improvements are made to judicial proceedings, then what is the point of hiring Internet celebrities to promote the system?” he said.
Internet Gazette Law Paper (法治時報社) publisher and legal expert Huang Yueh-hung (黃越宏) said that the Judicial Yuan was using taxpayer money to promote its lay judge system, while abandoning a proposed jury system, which the Democratic Progressive Party calls for in its charter.
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 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
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS