Singaporean entrepreneur Joseph Phua (潘杰賢) yesterday said he is to launch a new publication with 96 percent of Apple Daily (Taiwan)’s original staff, as critics continued to call for government scrutiny.
Phua, founder of the streaming platform 17Live, held a news conference yesterday to announce the establishment of Next Apple News.
Phua vowed to refrain from using Apple Daily (Taiwan)’s brand, Web site and assets, and would not have access to personal information.
Photo: CNA
He also promised that Next Apple News would maintain neutrality and abide by the law.
The Web site of Apple Daily (Taiwan) — Apple Online — issued a statement yesterday, saying that it would stop updating content from 11:59pm today.
Apple Daily (Taiwan) said it was sorry that it had to bid farewell to its readers due to a lack of working capital, but added that Next Apple News would continue to shoulder the same responsibility to expose societal injustices.
It also invited people from different ideologies to share their advice with the new company.
“Every piece of your criticism will motivate Next Apple News to do better as it has been for Apple Daily (Taiwan) for the past 19 years,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Economic Democracy Union yesterday asked Apple Daily (Taiwan) to destroy its news material and draw up regulations regarding how personal information would be handled after the business closes.
It also called on the Ministry of Culture to supervise the process.
Apple Daily (Taiwan) in a statement on Wednesday last week said that personnel data would be archived for five to seven years before being destroyed, its fiscal and tax information would be archived for five to 10 years before being destroyed, and the data of its subscribers and members, as well as its news material, would be archived forever.
The union said that archiving is different from destroying, so the handling of Apple Daily (Taiwan) might potentially contravene Paragraph 3, Article 11 of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
It would continue to monitor whether Phua and Next Apple News engage in illegal practices or hurt Taiwan’s democracy, it added.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS