[Taiwan News] Reporters Without Borders condemns Taiwan president’s failure to respect press independence

(Taiwan News) – Reporters Without Borders, an organization aims to safeguard press freedom and promote human rights, issued a statement on Dec. 17 with a topic of “Public media threatened, despite government denials” to voice concerns for the suppression of Taiwan media workers’ freedom of speech by the government, condemning President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) failure to respect press independence. (more)

[Taipei Times] EDITORIAL: Hollow promises of media freedom

Reporters Without Borders, an NGO devoted to press freedom, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that despite recent assurances to the contrary from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), it was concerned that media independence in Taiwan remains under threat from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.

The statement highlighted KMT attempts to control the programming of Public Television Service (PTS). The party’s legislators have proposed that PTS would require item-by-item approval from the Government Information Office (GIO) for all budget matters.

The KMT’s “campaign to reaffirm its influence over the public TV stations seems to have strengthened,” the statement read, before urging the president “to set up mechanisms that guarantee media independence.” (more)

[Taipei Times] Watchdog still concerned about media interference

Despite President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) denial in a letter to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the international press freedom watchdog is concerned that the independence of the nation’s media is threatened and has urged the Ma government to refrain from manipulating the media.

“Taiwan should be a press freedom model in Asia and the independence of the public media is one of the key components of a free and diverse press system,” the group said in a statement released on Wednesday. “We want to believe in President Ma’s promises, but they must be translated into action.” (more)

[Taipei Times] INTERVIEW: Taiwan must fight to keep democracy: ex-UN official

INTERVIEW: Taiwan must fight to keep democracy: ex-UN official

COUNTING BLESSINGS: Youth must learn to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy today, especially compared with the Chinese, ex-UN human rights official Nisuke Ando said
By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Dec 19, 2008, Page 3

Former UN Human Rights Commission chairman Nisuke Ando praised Taiwan as a model of democracy for China and said the public must pressure the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration not to return the country to the totalitarian system of the White Terror period.

Ando was among several international human rights advocates to speak at the International Human Rights Conference in Kaohsiung on Wednesday last week, the 60th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (more)

[Taipei Times] INTERVIEW: Rights lawyer says Taiwan democracy under threat

Taiwan still stands as a beacon of hope for the rule of law and democratic development in Asia but recent government-related human rights violations have caused its rays to shine less brightly, said David Kilgour, a Canadian human rights lawyer, urging the public to closely monitor the administration in order to safeguard the country’s democracy.

Kilgour, the vice president of the Taiwan-Canadian Friendship Group in the Canadian parliament, a well-known international human rights lawyer and activist and a former prosecutor, was one of the invited speakers at the International Forum on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of human Rights held in Kaohsiung City on Thursday.

Citing the example of police brutality and riots last month during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), Kilgour said many friends of Taiwan were concerned about dramatic deteriorations in the rule-of-law, human dignity and democratic practices in Taiwan in recent months. (more)

[GroundReport] Taiwan Government Cracks Down on Student Protests of 'Wild Strawberries' Movement

The forced eviction of Wild Strawberries Movement at the Freedom Square this morning (Dec 11), just a few hours after the International Human Rights Day, shows the Taiwan government's hypocrisy in the implementation of human rights .

On International Human Rights Day (12/10), Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou asked the Legislature to give endorsement to two international human rights documents (the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) to help implement human rights protection in Taiwan. The speech was made in Asian Democracy and Human Rights Award, an annual event organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. (more)

Demonstrations in Taiwan in the Press

[Taiwan News] Social groups in Taiwan protest KMT’s attempt to interfere in PTS operations

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The opposition Democratic Progressive Party yesterday returned the proposal made by ruling Kuomingtang Policy Committee Chief Executive Lin Yi-shih (林益世) to the Legislative Procedural Committee. Lin’s proposal to amend the Public Television Act to increase number of board member of Public Television Service has met protests by PTS employees, visual workers, Association of Taiwan Journalists (AJT) among 63 social groups for the ruling party’s attempt to intervene in PTS operations. ...


[Taipei Times] Scores of civic groups rally in support of Public Television Service

More than 60 civic organizations staged a protest outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday, demanding the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus reconsider a proposal on controlling the budget for Public Television Service (PTS). The KMT caucus froze the NT$450 million (US$13.5 million) budget for PTS for the second half of this year and has come up with a proposal that all programming budget be approved by the Government Information Office (GIO) first.

The proposal has drawn criticism from the opposition, civic groups, filmmakers and academics, who called it a KMT attempt to control the media. ...


[Taipei Times] Crowd condemns violence ahead of hearing

Accompanied by hundreds of supporters, three women who have filed lawsuits against the police for allegedly beating them during anti-China protests last month, marched to the Taipei District Court for their first court hearing yesterday. “Our judicial system is not perfect, but we still have some expectations of it. That's why we're trying to seek justice through the judiciary against police abuses,” Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Lin Feng-cheng (林峰正) told a crowd gathered at Liberty Square in support of the complainants before marching to the courthouse a few blocks away. ...

[Taipei Times] EDITORIAL: Picking off the Wild Strawberries

Enough has been said about the timing of Taipei City police in dispersing the tail of the Wild Strawberry Student Movement at Liberty Square on Thursday morning — only hours after Human Rights Day ended — so there is no need to dwell on the irony of it all.

What is of more concern here is the obliviousness of the police to their growing image as a partisan agency and the slapdash approach they use in determining when and how to enforce the law.

On Thursday, Zhongzheng First Precinct head Chen Ming-cheng (陳銘政) said that several complaints had been received about the protesters’ presence in the square. The offended parties were not identified, nor were the merits of the complaints canvassed. (more)

[Taiwan News] Taiwan Wild Strawberry Movement students to form observation group in case trial against state violence

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The case filed by citizens against state violence will open at Taipei District Court Friday. The three plaintiffs, Wild Strawberry Movement students, scholars, and social groups plan to form an observation group to attend the hearing.

The observation group is formed to observe and take records of the court session. On the same day Dec. 12, social groups and student protesters will also hold a “private court” to try the state violence case at the Liberty Square. (more)

[Taipei Times] Wild Strawberries forced to vacate Liberty Square

The Wild Strawberry Student Movement yesterday criticized the government after the surprise eviction by police early yesterday morning of the 40 student protesters and a group of Tibetan activists who remained at Liberty Square following the students’ rally on Sunday.

“[The eviction took place] less than 24 hours after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said [at a Human Rights Day event] that people in Taiwan enjoy the most freedom to assemble and parade [in the world],” movement spokesman Lo Shih-hsiang (羅士翔) told a press conference.

“At about 5am, the students who were staging a silent sit-in at Liberty Square were besieged and removed by police along with about 100 Tibetan activists, without any warning. We are very ashamed by [the police action],” Lo said. (more)

[Kmtnews] Polices Disperse “Wild Strawberry Movement” Protestors

This time KMT seems to be well prepared and have all information already on their webpage

http://www.kmtnews.net/client/eng/NewsArtical.php?REFDOCID=00az4moy1n7wilvt&TYPIDJump=00air17gdql55u7h

[Taiwan News] Taiwan Wild Strawberry Movement returns to protest inadequate law enforcement

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After 50 students at the Liberty Square was dispersed by police early in the morning, about 30 students returned to the same site at 9 am to protest inadequate law enforcement by the police.

The Wild Strawberry Movement began on Nov. 6 during the period of Taiwan visit made by Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, asking the Parade and Assembly law be amended. On Dec. 7, a rally was held in peace and ended the one-month movement. Several students still stayed for the sit-in. Since the next day, Tibetan movement supporters have staged a sit-in on the right side of the Liberty Square in protest of China’s violent acts. (more)

[Taiwan News] Cabinet to communicate with legislature on human rights covenants (after decades)

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thursday to actively seek negotiations with legislators to win their long-delayed endorsement of two international human rights covenants.

Liu issued the directive at a weekly Cabinet meeting, during which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a report on the progress in promoting ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (more)

[Taipei Times] Journalists demand interview with NPA head over incident

A group of independent journalists gathered outside the National Police Agency (NPA) yesterday, demanding an interview with NPA Director-General Wang Chuo-chiun (王卓鈞) on an incident last week in which two independent journalists were asked to leave the scene of a protest.

“We would like to interview NPA Director-General Wang today on our right to record and report news events as civilians and as independent journalists,” Sun Chiung-li (孫窮理), an independent journalist affiliated with news Web site Coolloud, told police officers blocking the entrance to the building. (more)

Ma: ... Taiwan has also become the freest country in the world for those wishing to assemble or parade.

[Taipei Times] EDITORIAL: Ma's ironic Human Rights Day

Thursday, Dec 11, 2008, Page 8

At the invitation of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) delivered a keynote speech yesterday marking International Human Rights Day in Taipei.

In his speech, Ma expressed the wish that the legislature would speedily approve the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to show the importance Taiwan attaches to human rights. ...

[China Post] Ma calls for legislative endorsement of human rights covenants

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday called on lawmakers to endorse two documents for the protection of human rights, but the opposition camp claimed that human rights conditions have been back pedalling since he took office in May.

Ma asked the Legislature to give its long-delayed endorsement to two international human rights documents to help implement human rights protection in Taiwan. ...

Comment:

By far the best statement is: In his speech, Ma said: “The government has worked incessantly to uphold human rights ... Taiwan has also become the freest country in the world for those wishing to assemble or parade.”

The freest country in a wold only including China and North Korea???
If not, Mr. Ma just lied in public and obvious for million of people.

Sorry, maybe I have always been in the wrong places in this world, but I would even call the cabinets ideas for a new assembly law are in my eyes extremely restrictive.

I presented the German Assembly law some time ago and there are much more liberal countries in Europe.

I live in a country with gay marriage, weed smoking and a liberal Jew as our capitals mayor and I would state, Mr. Ma has just been in the wrong countries.

[Radio Taiwan International] Looks as if Mr. Ma tries to work on his damaged image in the world

Ma urges legislature to ratify human rights treaties

President Ma Ying-jeou attended the Asian Human Rights Awards on Wednesday, World Human Rights Day. Speaking at the ceremony, he urged the Legislature to sign off on international human rights agreements Taiwan first signed in the sixties. (more)

President supports changes to detention act

President Ma Ying-jeou said Wednesday that he supports better treatment for criminal suspects awaiting trial. Currently, those held in detention prior to their trials are treated no differently to those convicted of crimes. (more)

Taiwanese Press on 1207 March of still fighting Wild Strawberries

... including some wrong reports that the protests ended:

[China Post] Students end sit-in with demonstration

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- College students demanding the right to hold public demonstrations without restrictions decided to end their month-long sit-in after staging a march in Taipei yesterday.

With supporters and sympathizers joining their ranks, the students marched on the boulevard that link the Anti-Corruption Plaza, the Legislative Yuan, and the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) in the capital to protest the regulations that they say limit people's constitutional right to demonstrate freely. ...

[Taipei Times] Wild Strawberry protest stays peaceful

EVERYBODY STAY CALM: The student protesters and supporters applauded police officers for only issuing warnings and not blocking them or clashing with them
By Flora Wang and Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTERS
Monday, Dec 08, 2008, Page 1

The Wild Strawberry Student Movement marked its one-month anniversary in Taipei yesterday with a rally featuring a mock funeral for the nation’s human rights, attracting several thousand participants of all ages. The demonstrators, who only reported their planned event to the police instead of seeking approval from law enforcement authorities as required by the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), peacefully marched to the Legislative Yuan, the Control Yuan, the Executive Yuan, the National Police Agency (NPA) and Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office. ...

[Taipei Times] REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Wild Strawberries protest proves the skeptics wrong

Many people may have had reservations about whether the loosely-knit Wild Strawberry Student Movement would be capable of staging a successful and peaceful rally as planned when they heard that the students had decided not to report their planned protest to the police in defiance of the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法). Even Ho Tung-hung (何東洪), an associate professor of psychology at Fu Jen Catholic University and a participant in the Wild Lily Student Movement (野百合學運) of the 1990s, expressed reservations when talking to the Taipei Times several days prior to Sunday’s demonstration.

Ho, who had been offering advice to the Wild Strawberries as a student movement veteran, had expressed doubts about whether the students would be able to handle such a large-scale rally. ...


[Tawan News] Taiwan’s Wild Strawberry Movement ends with a peaceful rally

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On the one-month anniversary, Wild Strawberry Movement had assembled protesters all over the island to stage a demonstration in Taipei Sunday, protesting the “death of human rights” to Ma Ying-jeou government. Since the previous application for right of way was overruled, it is feared that clash may erupt between students and police officers. Fortunately, the four-hour rally came to an end in peace, with students expressing their gratitude to the police for the peaceful result. ...

[Taiwan News] Thousands turn out for Wild Strawberries demo in Taiwan

About 3,000 Taiwanese college students marched in the capital yesterday to protest a law that they say limits people's constitutional right to demonstrate freely.

The students, many in black shirts symbolizing impaired human rights, shouted slogans as they paraded in a downtown district with police and government buildings. ...

Human Rights in the Taiwanese Press

[Taiwan News] Social groups release documentary testifying Taiwan’s backward human rights

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Social groups Taiwan Society and Friends of Taiwan released a documentary “Red Marshall Law” yesterday on the eve of International Human Rights Day and of the 29-year anniversary of Formosa Incident, criticizing Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) government’s downgrading Taiwan and harming human rights. ...

[Taiwan News] Taiwan PTS protests press freedom interfered by lawmakers

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Public Television Service (PTS) Board Director Cheng Tung-liao (鄭同僚) and President Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢) among other top executives yesterday placed a statement on Chinese-language newspapers to protest the Legislative Yuan’s resolution that TV stations under the Taiwan Broadcasting System should ask for the consent of governing authorities before using each item of next year’s budget. The statement said that lawmakers had moved Taiwan’s freedom of press and democracy backward and breached the consensus of withdrawal from media of political party and the military. ...


[Taipei Times] TAHR slams Ma over rights abuses

TOP 10 VIOLATIONS: The rights association said that instead of exporting Taiwanese democracy to China, the government has imported Chinese repression
By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008, Page 1

The suppression by police of protests during last month's visit by a Chinese official topped this year's top 10 human rights violations, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) said yesterday, urging the government to stop sabotaging the nation's hard won democracy by promptly amending the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法). ...

[Taipei Times] All the president's men reject 'police brutality'

In an effort to improve his reputation abroad, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) sent a legislator, a police bureaucrat and a justice ministry official to Washington on Monday to argue that recent charges of Taiwanese police brutality were a “misunderstanding.”

After making a 90-minute presentation at the Heritage Foundation — a conservative think tank — the team moved on to the US Congress to distribute a statement denying that police were anything other than victims in the protests against Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin's (陳雲林) visit last month. ...

[Taipei Times] Documentary on brutality during Chen visit released

A pro-independence organization yesterday released a documentary recounting how the police used excessive force to block people from expressing their opinions and protesting during the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), and said the documentary would be delivered to several international human rights organizations in the hope they would pay more attention to Taiwan’s human rights situation.
“By producing the documentary, we hope to draw the attention of international society [to the fact] that human rights in Taiwan have been seriously violated and democracy has been jeopardized during President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration,” Secretary-General of the Taiwan Society Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) told a press conference yesterday. ...

[Taipei Times] Human rights advocates air concerns

DEJA VU: Threats to civil liberties and freedom of the press as well as pretrial detentions of opposition figures have led some to feel they are back in the Martial Law era
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008, Page 3

On Dec. 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sixty years later, Taiwan prides itself on its peaceful democratization. However, many human rights and media watchdogs, both local and international, have expressed concerns over an increase in human rights violations and restrictions on civil liberties since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May. ...

[International Harald Tribune] Taiwanese students protest demonstration law

TAIPEI, Taiwan: About 3,000 Taiwanese college students marched in the capital Sunday to protest a law that they say limits people's constitutional right to demonstrate freely.

The students, many in black shirts symbolizing impaired human rights, shouted slogans as they paraded in a downtown district with police and government buildings. (more)

[Yahoo News] Taiwanese protest police 'abuse' during anti-China demos

TAIPEI (AFP) - Hundreds of college students protested in Taipei on Sunday against what they called police abuse in handling anti-China demonstrations last month and demanded an apology from President Ma Ying-jeou.(more)