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Netizens blame Want
Want for scandal
PAID OFF: ON THE FLIP SIDE:Various Want Want
media outlets accused a professor of paying students to protest against a media
merger, but netizens think they are making the story up
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Netizens are casting doubt on recent reports that students were paid to take
part in a protest against the takeover by Want Want China Times Group of the
cable TV channels owned by service provider China Network Systems (CNS), saying
the group most likely instigated the reports to attack the protesters.
On Friday, the Chinese-language China Times, China Times Weekly and local news
channel CTiTV ¡X all members of Want Want Group ¡X ran stories with pictures
showing student protesters taking money after a rally outside the National
Communications Commission (NCC) building.
Although the media outlets provided no evidence to back up their claims, the
three outlets reported that Academia Sinica research fellow Huang Kuo-chang
(¶À°ê©÷) may have been involved in paying the students.
Huang had organized a separate demonstration at the same time as the student
rally in front of the NCC building because the commission was reviewing the
merger at that time. However, reports from the China Times, China Times Weekly
and CTiTV did not differentiate between the two demonstrations.
Although Huang organized a press conference denying that he had any connection
with the student protest, the media group continued to accuse him of ¡§not
wanting to clarify the incident,¡¨ while saying he was ¡§not willing to disclose
the truth.¡¨
Yesterday, several media outlets, including the Chinese-language Apple Daily,
claimed to have discovered the identity of a woman who handed out money to
students on Wednesday.
The woman, identified as Liang Li-hui (±çÄR´f), is an accountant at Chinsen
Communications Co.
While reporters were unable to contact her, Liang¡¦s colleagues said that
although they did not know who had hired the company to recruit students, they
were certain it was not Huang.
Netizens are increasingly voicing suspicions that Want Want Group may be behind
the incident and using it as a way to stigmatize opponents of the takeover.
National Tsinghua University student Chen Wei-ting (³¯¬°§Ê) posted a picture of the
protest that was aired in a CtiTV report, with the China Times Weekly deputy
editor-in-chief Lin Chao-hsin (ªL´ÂøÊ) among the crowd, adding that he suspected
Want Want was behind the protest.
Lin denied the accusations, saying he was at the protest because it was his job
to report on it, while CTiTV threatened to file a slander lawsuit against Chen.
Want Want China Times Media Group employees accused the media giant of
manipulating news reports to attack Huang.
¡§I feel like dying everyday,¡¨ a reporter told the Taipei Times on condition of
anonymity. ¡§My name is on news reports attacking Huang, and I¡¦ve seen readers
criticizing me for the reports on the Internet, but the fact is that I didn¡¦t
produce most of these reports.¡¨
The employee said that his name and the names of several of his colleagues were
on the byline of a news report published on Friday implying that Huang was
behind the incident.
¡§In fact, 90 percent of the report came directly from the China Times Weekly and
what I wrote was all deleted,¡¨ the reporter said. ¡§I complained about this
several times, but the management simply ignored me.¡¨
The reporter said many employees within the group feel uncomfortable with what
the company asks them to do, with one resigning because of it.
Huang released a statement yesterday, asking Want Want China Times to ¡§stop
destroying the dignity of journalists in the group.¡¨
¡§What Want Want China Times has been doing proves how important it is to resist
this media monster, which has no ethics in news reporting,¡¨ the statement said.
He also called on the media group to leave his family alone, as reporters from
the group have not only been following him around for days, but have also
stationed themselves around his house.
Huang said he would be leaving for the US for 10 months on a pre-scheduled
research project next week, but added that the project was scheduled last year,
and asked the media group to refrain from fabricating so-called news out of it.
He was referring to a report by CTiTV that Huang¡¦s decision to leave Taiwan for
so long right after the alleged scandal broke was ¡§suspicious.¡¨
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