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.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS