KUSO and freedom of speech in Taiwan
This is just a brief translation of some key points about the "Hu's girls incident" for people who can't read Chinese.
Jason Hu is the current Mayor of Taichung and KMT candidate for Mayor of Greater Taichung in the forthcoming election. As part of his campaign his team produced a video featuring "Hu's girls" with twin sisters singing and dancing to promote Taichung. Then netizen "Kuso Cat" (廖小貓) produced a KUSO* version of the video. The KUSO version spliced in news reports about Taichung's sex industry. The twins then complained about the video. Links to both videos are below.
Dan Bloom has written an article explaining some key points of the incident. After the KUSO version of the video became known Taichung prosecutors launched an investigation. This is believed to be as a result of pressure from Mayor Hu's office or campaign team. Dan Bloom also makes the point that when the Personal Data Protection Act takes effect next year this will provide even stronger legal sanctions against people who use images of others on the internet without their express permission. Dan Bloom takes the point of view of protection against cyberbullying in his article. However, these laws and the Hu's girls incident show that the government can use its powers to limit freedom of speech.
More details are reported in Chinese by TWIMI and Billy Pan. Another detail Billy Pan adds is a letter from the Ministry of Education sent to the managers of the PTT** internet gossip forum. The letter called on the managers of the forum to more strictly manage political content.
Here is the video of the press conference held by bloggers in support of "Kuso Cat" this morning (11/2).
This is an important case for freedom of speech in Taiwan. It is very important for bloggers and internet users to resist any form of government interference in freedom of speech.
Update: The Taipei Times reports that Taichung prosecutors say no laws have been broken and they are not investigating the case.
*KUSO is a form of parody or humor popular among netizens in East Asia.
**PTT is one of the most popular internet discussion forums in Taiwan.
