By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) yesterday filed a defamation lawsuit against The Journalist (新新聞) magazine over an article it published, which claimed that Huang took bribes for endorsing certain legislation.
Huang filed the lawsuit against a reporter, as well as the magazine’s chairman and editor-in-chief, at the Taipei Prosecutors’ Office, saying that he had to file the lawsuit because the report had “tarnished his reputation and the TSU’s image.”
A report published by the magazine on June 13 quoted an unnamed senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator as saying that imprisoned former independent lawmaker Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) bribed Huang in exchange for the TSU’s support of an amendment to the Accounting Act (會計法).
The amendment, if passed, would decriminalize lawmakers, including Yen, local councilors and hundreds of university professors for misusing public funds or illegally falsifying receipts to account for research grants from the government.
Huang said the contents of the report were untrue and anonymous sources were quoted to abuse his integrity.
The senior politician made headlines earlier this week when the TSU expelled Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉), one of its three at-large lawmakers, citing Lin’s repeated violations of party discipline, in particular her unilateral endorsement of a negotiation of the controversial amendment to the Accounting Act without notifying the party.
Several media outlets reported that the removal appeared to be retaliation by Huang against Lin because the two did not have a solid working relationship.
Questions were also asked about Huang’s seemingly unlimited term as TSU chairman, which began in January 2007.