A reporter and professor were sentenced to nine and six months in prison respectively and stripped of their civil rights for two years by the Taichung branch of the High Court today for fabricating election polls during the last presidential election.
Reporter Lin Hsien-yuan (林獻元) allegedly accepted 130,000 yuan (US$17,936) from the Chinese Communist Party and worked with Taichung-based Tunghai University professor Su Yuan-hwa (蘇雲華) to disseminate fake polls that would influence election results.
The dissemination of fake opinion polls misleads voters and endangers the nation’s sovereignty and democracy, prosecutors said, accusing Lin and Su of contravening the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法).
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
The Taichung District Court ruled this law did not apply, and instead sentenced Lin and Su to eight and four months in prison respectively for contravening the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選罷法).
The prosecution was dissatisfied with this ruling and appealed.
The Taichung branch of the High Court issued a second ruling today, stating that the defendants contravened both acts and increased their sentences.
The High Court also granted Su a two-year probation.
It did not provide additional reasoning for the ruling, which can be appealed.
Prosecutors initially accused the defendants of following instructions from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) to publish nine false presidential election polls.
In the first trial by the district court, Su admitted to the crimes, while Lin said that his manipulation of polling data was not politically motivated and that the money he received was for purchasing teapots on behalf of his Chinese friends.
As Lin had been engaged in cross-strait journalism for a long period, the court ruled that interactions with Chinese reporters and officials were understandable and did not indicate he was following their commands.
The false polls released before Nov. 24, 2023, were deemed not punishable, as candidates had not yet registered at that time.
The two polls fabricated after that date were ruled to have contravened the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act.
The district court also ruled that Lin contravened the Company Act (公司法) by borrowing money from a friend to meet the minimum capital threshold required to found his media company.
The High Court maintained this ruling.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS