The Presidential Palace refutes media insinuations that Lai Ching-te is involved in the financial flow of a customized baby group

In response to media headlines and reports such as "Investing custom-made baby group's financial flows, 3 green tycoons caught, surprised to see Lai Qingde?!" and other headlines and reports, insinuating that President Lai Qingde was involved in the case's financial flows, Presidential Office spokesperson Guo Yahui expressed solemn protest in the evening, questioning TVBS's juxtaposition of judicial cases and public donation records, but unable to prove that the two are related, demanding that the facts be clarified immediately, errors corrected, and political manipulation stopped.

Guo Yahui said that she would express her solemn protest and issue two points of clarification regarding TVBS's insinuation headlines and reports such as "Searching on the cash flow of a custom-made baby group and arresting three green celebrities. Surprised to see Lai Qingde?!"

Kuo Yahui pointed out that first of all, the case of the Taichung surrogate mother group is already under judicial investigation. Certain media maliciously misled witnesses in this case who had donated political donations to the government and opposition parties as financial flows involved in the case, and based this on false accusations that the president was involved in the case. The relevant practices not only ignored the journalism profession, but also violated journalistic ethics.

Second, the president’s political donations over the years have been declared in accordance with the law and are publicly available for inspection. TVBS maliciously titled the political donations made by witnesses in the case to the government and the opposition with "Financial flow involved three green celebrities" and "Surprised to see Lai Ching-te?!" and juxtaposed judicial cases with public donation records, but failed to provide any evidence to prove that the two were related, in an attempt to mislead viewers into thinking that the president was involved in the case.

Guo Yahui said that this reporting method of packaging insinuations, using sensational headlines to avoid verification, and turning news tools into political manipulation tools is the worst example of harming press freedom. We call on the TV station to immediately clarify the facts, correct errors, and stop using the case for political manipulation.