Taipei Times
Date: Apr 08, 2017
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Marking the nation’s first Freedom of Speech Day, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)

yesterday pledged to continue fighting for Taiwan’s “people of democracy and freedom.”

Tsai made the remarks during a ceremony commemorating the 28th anniversary of the death of democracy pioneer Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) at his tomb in New Taipei City’s Jinbaoshan Cemetery. Deng’s widow, former Presidential Office secretary-general Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), was at the event.

Deng, who ran a number of dissident magazines, self-immolated on April 7, 1989, in protest against government restrictions on freedom of speech. In December last year, the Tsai administration designated April 7 as Freedom of Speech Day to honor Deng’s pursuit of freedom of expression.

“When Deng immolated himself in 1989, many things were left undone. At the time, the National Assembly had yet to be re-elected and there were no direct presidential elections, while Article 100 of the Criminal Code and the Punishment of Rebellion Act (懲治叛亂條例) restricted people’s freedom of speech,” Tsai said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – At least 60 percent of gays will not come out of the closet at work because they

fear it will harm their chances for promotion, according to the results of a poll released Saturday.

Taiwan is known as one of the most gay-friendly nations in Asia, even though proposals to legalize gay marriage have so far failed to make it through the Legislative Yuan.

A survey by the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBT) Hotline Association found that 11 percent of gay workers were unwilling to acknowledge they were gay to colleagues or superiors at work, while more than 50 percent of those who had, believed there were still colleagues who had not come out of the closet.

A total of 25 percent of gay employees were afraid they might lose their job if it became known at work they were gay, while 40 percent said it would affect their chances for promotion or their career in general, or lead to harassment by superiors.    [FULL  STORY]

Renting their own float, a group of Taiwanese students in the Big Apple invited the world to visitTaiwan to experience the largest gay pride parade in Asia.

The News Lens
By: J. Michael Cole

A group of Taiwanese students in New York proudly put Taiwan’s tolerance on display at the

weekend with their own float at the city’s annual LGBT parade.

According to Apple Daily, a total of 480 LGBT groups participated in Sunday’s (June 26, 2016)  parade along Fifth Avenue, drawing an estimated 32,000 participants and reinforced security following the deadly shooting at a gay night club in Orlando earlier this month. Accompanied by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, the likely Democrat presidential nominee, also participated in the march.

And Taiwan was there, too. To the beat of music by Taiwanese pop artists Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) and A-Mei (張惠妹), two vocal supporters of LGBT rights in Taiwan, the Friends of Taiwanese Queers float — rented by Taiwanese students — also featured large signs saying “From Taiwan” and “See Asia’s biggest gay pride parade.”     [FULL  STORY]

POLITICAL PRISONER:Grace Geng gave DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu a copy of her father’s book, in which she asks President Tsai Ing-wen to help him and Chinese people

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 18, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s (高智晟) daughter, Grace Geng (耿格), yesterday

pleaded for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to help her father, as he has been living under close surveillance by Chinese authorities since his release from jail in 2014.

Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏), chairman of the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights (TACHR), one of the co-organizers of a book launch event organized by the Legislative Yuan’s Parliamentary Cross-Party Group on International Human Rights, where Geng made the plea for help, said that Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Albert Ho (何俊仁) had planned to attend the event, but was unable to do so due to the recent return of Lam Wing-kei (林榮基), the former manager of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong who was abducted by Chinese authorities.

Geng, who in 2009 escaped from China with her mother and brother to the US, said she has signed a copy of her father’s book and hopes that it will be handed to Tsai, “the first female democratically elected president of Taiwan.”

Gao’s book, Stand Up China 2017 — China’s Hope: What I Learned During Five Years as a Political Prisoner, detailed how he has been repeatedly kidnapped, confined, tortured and beaten since 2004 by Chinese authorities.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/04/21
Translated and compiled by Bing-sheng Lee

Taiwan ranks 51 in the latest World Press Freedom Index, which is widely seen

as the benchmark of press freedom around the world.

On April 20, Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a France-based international non-profit, non-governmental organization that advocates and safeguards freedom of information, released its 2016 World Press Freedom Index report.

Taiwan is ranked 51 among 180 countries in this year’s index, which is the same as last year’s result.

According to RWB, the press freedom report is published each year in spring and the index is made based on “an evaluation of media freedom that measures pluralism, media independence, the quality of the legal framework and the safety of journalists in 180 countries.”

Even though Taiwan ranks the highest among all the Asian nations in the index, Delphine Halgand, US director of Reporters Without Borders, says that there is still concerns over Taiwan’s press freedom. She says that some people are worried about China’s influence over Taiwan’s media and some Taiwanese media have already changed its stance toward a more pro-China position.     [FULL  STORY]

Source: Taiwan Today
Date: January 29, 2016

Taiwan was classified as a free nation for the 18th consecutive year by

U.S.-based Freedom House in its 2016 Freedom in the World report released Jan. 27.

With a score of 1 in political rights, 2 in civil liberties and an overall freedom rating of 1.5, the same as 2015, Taiwan’s aggregate score of 89 points out of 100 put it behind only Japan in Asia.

Other free nations in the region include India, Mongolia and South Korea. Mainland China was once again listed as not free, while Hong Kong and Singapore remained partly free.

The report ranks nations on a scale of 1 to 7 in both categories, with 1 being the freest and 7 the least free. A nation’s overall status is determined by the average of its ratings in the two categories. A score of 1 to 2.5 is classified as free; 3 to 5, partly free; and 6 and above, not free.     [FULL STORY]

Pink News
Date: 28th December 2015
By: Joseph Patrick McCormick

Life in a gay couple just got a little bit easier in Taiwan as the

country’s two largest cities have teamed up on same-sex partnership registration.

Taipei and Kaohsiung will share information on the registered partnerships from 1 January.
A Festivus for the Rest of Us: A Seinfeld Holiday Calendar
Poles, grievances and no tinsel. Join Hulu, Seinfeld and Salon in celebrating the annual tradition of Festivus.

This will mean couples registered in one city will not need to register in the other if they relocate.     [FULL  STORY]