CNN responds to Taiwan vice president's demand for apology

Mar 9, 2007, 2:27 GMT

Taipei - The US-based Cable News Network (CNN) has responded to Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu's demand for apology over CNN's 'biased' story on Lu, but the content of the response is unknown, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Friday.

'CNN headquarters in Atlanta sent us an envelop Thursday afternoon, which we sent to the presidential office via Federal Express. It should reach Taipei Saturday or Sunday,' CNA quoted Chang Chung-jen, head of the Atlanta office of Taiwan's Government Information Office (GIO), as saying. 'The envelop bore the name of CNN Managing Director Chris Cramer, but we don't know the content of the reply.'

On Tuesday, GIO passed on Lu's protest letter to CNN headquarters in Atlanta. Cramer made the reply Thursday upon his return from a business trip to Mexico.

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

The US-based Associated Press (AP) news agency 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 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 that 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 did not apologize.

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

AP's headquarters in New York apologized Thursday to Lu and instructed its Taipei bureau to conduct an interview with Lu - and let Lu 'say all she wants to say' - to produce balanced reporting, Lu told reporters.

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

In Taiwan, the controversy has exploded into a political incident, with Taiwan leaders and some lawmakers calling certain foreign reporters siding with China and using China's words to insult Taiwan leaders.

On Thursday, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian criticized AP and CNN for the 'biased' story on Lu.

Speaking at a dinner party for foreign envoys, Chen said that 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.

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.

But at home and abroad, Lu is widely lauded as a firm advocate of Taiwan's sovereignty and an outspoken defender of human and women's rights.