Taiwan president criticizes AP, CNN's "biased" story (Roundup)

Mar 8, 2007, 16:23 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian on Thursday criticized the US-based Associated Press (AP) news agency and the US cable TV network CNN for their 'biased' story on Vice President Annette Lu.

Speaking at a dinner party for foreign envoys, Chen said that when Lu registered to join the 2008 presidential election on Tuesday, two foreign news outlets adopted China's unobjective terminology and used 'rude and irresponsible words' in the headline of their story.

'I believe that any professional media group would not quote Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's words to criticize or attack US President George W Bush, and use Chavez's words as the headline. But such an unfortunate thing has happened to Vice President Lu,' Chen said.

The controversy erupted on Tuesday when Lu held a news conference to declare she would run for president in the 2008 election.

AP filed a story on Lu's candidacy, saying in the lead that she was branded by China as 'insane' and 'the scum of the nation,' and said in the third paragraph that Lu's chances of winning were slim.

CNN carried the entire AP story on its website, but used its own headline 'Taiwan's 'scum of the nation' runs for president,' triggering an immediate protest from Lu's office.

Lu said the CNN story had insulted her and the Taiwan people. She demanded an apology and a correction, and did not rule out seeking damages.

CNN later changed its headline to 'Lu seeks to be first Taiwan woman president,' but has not apologized yet.

Lu also sent a protest letter to AP on Wednesday, demanding an apology and a correction within 48 hours.

AP's headquarters in New York apologized to Lu on Thursday and instructed its Taipei bureau to conducts an interview with Lu to produce balanced reporting, Lu told reporters.

In an interview with the cable TV channel TVBS on Wednesday, Lu said she could not understand why AP was using words which China used to blast her in 2002, calling the report 'unacceptable' and 'unforgivable.'

Lu, 62, a former dissident, human rights activist and lawmaker, angered China by openly declaring that Taiwan and China are two countries and condemning Beijing's missile threats against Taiwan as terrorism, prompting China's Taiwan expert Liu Jiayan to brand her the 'scum of the nation' in a 2002 article.