Give media more leeway to cover entities suspected of child abuse: NGO

Taipei, July 14 (CNA) The Garden of Hope (GOH) Foundation has urged amending regulations on requiring media not to name institutions suspected of child abuse so that those institutions cannot abuse more victims while an investigation is underway.

While intended to protect children's privacy, current laws restrict the media from exposing potentially unsafe institutions, in turn putting unaware parents and children at risk, the GOH, a non-governmental organization, argued.

GOH CEO Wang Yueh-hao (王玥好) told CNA Saturday that these investigations into sexual abuse cases, which are not widely reported, often last one to two years, during which the media should be able to play its part in preventing potential assaults.

The GOH laid out the changes it wanted in March 2024, when it proposed amendments to Articles 66 and 69 of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act.

It called for administrative agencies to provide investigation reports to victims' parents (Article 66) and appropriate adjustments allowing greater disclosure of perpetrators and institutions by the media that is currently prohibited in Article 69 with few exceptions.

Wang made the appeal in light of a case involving a Taipei private preschool teacher who was indicted in August 2023 on charges of molesting six children. A verdict on the case is expected in August 2024.

The suspect, a man in his 30s, came under investigation multiple times for sexual abuse against minors, with the first complaints filed in June 2022. The initial case, which was looked into by police, was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

The man, whose mother owned the preschool, continued to teach at the school, but more parents filed complaints in March 2023 and he was eventually detained in July 2023.

Taipei's Education Department banned the man from working in the profession in Taiwan ever again, and his name was published on a list of debarred teachers on a central government website in September 2023. It also revoked the preschool's license on Oct. 1, 2023.

After prosecutors handed down the first indictment in August 2023, more than 20 other parents filed allegations of the same nature against the man, and those cases are being handled separately.

According to the GOH, there were only 14 media reports about the preschool in 2022, and Wang said many parents would not have unknowingly sent their children to the preschool had there been more media coverage of the suspicions and investigations.

In turn, she said, there would not have been the additional 20 victims.

On Saturday and Sunday, meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華), Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) and Ho Meng-hua (何孟樺) accused the city government and Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), who became mayor at the end of 2022, of negligence in the case.

They said the Education Department should not have allowed the man to continue working as a preschool teacher when he was under judicial investigation in July 2022 or in March 2023.

The failure to intervene in a timely manner resulted in more children falling prey to the man's criminal acts, they said.

The city's Education Department chief Tang Chih-min (湯志民) responded in a Sunday statement refuting the accusations of inaction.

The department went through the preschool's surveillance footage along with the police when the first report was filed in July 2022. At the time, they were unable to find evidence of the alleged crimes, Tang said.

Moreover, until the Statute for Preschool Educators was amended in March 2023, the department had no legal authority to suspend or penalize a preschool educator under investigation in 2022, Tang said.

The department took action against the man and the preschool promptly after receiving a report of the case on July 12, 2023, launching an official investigation and subsequently imposing the penalties, he said.

Meanwhile, the city's Social Welfare Department issued a separate statement, promising to step up inspections to prevent the preschool owner from getting back in business using other peoples' names, as has been alleged.