The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said it has filed civil litigation against the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and its editor-in-chief Tzou Jiing-wen (鄒景雯), accusing the paper of publishing "entirely untrue" reports on exchanges between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The party is seeking NT$2 million (US$63,698) in damages and demanding that a clarification notice be published for one month on the front pages of the China Times, the United Daily News and the Liberty Times — Taiwan's three major dailies.
The Liberty Times published seven reports on Jan. 25, Jan. 26 and Sunday last week that were “fake news,” KMT spokesperson Chiang I-chen (江怡臻) told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
The reports made claims about a planned meeting between KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Chiang said.
They included headlines such as "Beijing dissatisfied that the KMT only takes exchange benefits" and "A meeting between Cheng and Xi planned for mid-March."
The KMT had previously sent two lawyer's letters over separate reports, which made "completely baseless" accusations, said Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), director of the KMT's Culture and Communications Committee.
One was about alleged "conditions" tied to arranging the meeting and another claimed that a KMT lawmaker attended a gathering of Taiwanese business people in China "to receive instructions from the other side," he said.
The civil complaint names the Liberty Times, Tzou and two reporters as defendants, he added.
KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said that after Cheng took office as party chair in November last year, many foreign officials stationed in Taiwan asked him whether there were arms procurement conditions for arranging a meeting between her and Xi.
The reports had caused "negative evaluations" and damage to the KMT's reputation, particularly ahead of Taiwan's local elections in November, he said.
Neither he nor Wu had received any calls from the newspaper in relation to the reports, which was "very unusual," Hsiao said.
The newspaper's reports "all had basis" and underwent "reasonable verification," Liberty Times spokesperson Su Yu-hui (蘇宇暉) said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS