Taipei bans Apple Daily from schools

Nov 27, 2009, 0:52 GMT

Taipei - The Taipei city government has begun to bar the sensational Apple Daily - run by Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai - from entering primary and high schools in Taipei, press reports said Friday.

Starting Friday, the 300 primary schools and high schools in Taipei cannot subscribe to the Apple Daily. Visitors to Taipei's public libraries must prove they are above 18 years old to be allowed to read Apple Daily.

The move is to punish the Apple Daily for posting obscene motion graphic news on its website and transmitting it to many mobile phone users, the China Post daily said. The city government has urged Taipei schools and libraries to block access to the Apple Daily website.

NEXT MEDIA, which runs NEXT magazine and Apple Daily, launched the graphic motion news service on November 16. Its graphic reports about sexual assaults, homicides and suicides drew protests from many social groups.

To force NEXT MEDIA to cancel its graphic motion news, the city government on Wednesday and Thursday fined NEXT MEDIA 500,000 Taiwan dollars (15,000 US dollars) each time for violating the Children and Youth Welfare Law.

NEXT MEDIA protested the Taipei government's banning of Apple Daily from schools, comparing the action to 'martial law' and announcing plans to sue the Taipei City Government for damages caused by the ban.

Jimmy Lai launched the Taiwan version of Hong Kong's Apple Daily in 2003. With a daily circulation of 542,000 copies, Apple Daily has become the best-selling Chinese-language daily in Taiwan, despite public criticism of its content.