Statement by the Judicial Reform Foundation Regarding the China Times Report Dated November 14 Entitled "Former Judicial Reform Champions Now Stray from Justice and Become Hired Thugs"

Regarding the China Times report today (November 14) entitled "Former Judicial Reform Champions Now Stray from Justice and Become Hired Thugs," this Foundation issues the following statement:

1. The Judicial Reform Foundation Originated from Public Dissatisfaction with Government Delays in Judicial Reform

   In 1987, the lifting of martial law in Taiwan gradually liberated societal forces and brought about numerous political changes. Compared to the legislative and executive branches, the judiciary—long eroded by the authoritarian regime—had always held an ambiguous and non-independent status that was deliberately belittled, while corruption, negligence, and perversion of the law by judges and prosecutors occurred endlessly. The judicial budget was hollowed out by the executive and legislative branches, and within the judicial system, personnel administration measures were used to control personnel, making judges, prosecutors, and administrative bureaucrats virtually indistinguishable.

   However, the National Affairs Conference convened by President Lee Teng-hui in 1990 did not include judicial reform on its agenda, and his appointment of Shih Ch'i-yang as President of the Judicial Yuan in 1994 carried the paramount mission of reforming the judiciary. Unfortunately, no sweeping reforms were ever carried out. Amid public disappointment, a series of reform movements was launched. In October 1994, the Taiwan Bar Association resolved to prepare a separate organization dedicated to judicial reform, with attorney Ch'en Chuan-yueh serving as convener and attorney Lin Yung-sung as deputy convener—marking the inception of the Judicial Reform Foundation. Subsequently, the Preparatory Office of the Judicial Reform Foundation was established in 1995, and legal incorporation was officially completed in 1997.

   The aforementioned information is detailed on our website. The report erroneously claims that this Foundation "echoed the Judicial Reform Committee established by former President Lee Teng-hui in 1994." In reality, the establishment of the Judicial Reform Foundation began as one of the reform actions initiated by civil society out of dissatisfaction with the government's delays in judicial reform.

2. Members of the Judicial Reform Foundation Come from All Walks of Life and Maintain Their Stance of Monitoring the Government to This Day

   The organizational structure of the Judicial Reform Foundation includes a board of directors, supervisors, standing executive committee members, executive committee members, and advisory committee members, who hail from all sectors of society regardless of political affiliation, serving on a voluntary basis out of a passion for judicial reform. We broadly invite attorneys, judges, prosecutors, scholars, and socially impartial figures to participate, jointly dedicating ourselves to legislative research on the judicial system, the rescue of wrongful convictions, the monitoring and evaluation of judges and prosecutors, and the promotion of legal education. In 2017, following the conclusion of the National Conference on Judicial Reform, the Judicial Reform Foundation invited 21 civil society organizations and 14 members of the National Conference on Judicial Reform to jointly form the "Alliance for Civil Monitoring of the Implementation of the Resolutions of the National Conference on Judicial Reform" to continuously monitor the Tsai Ing-wen administration's progress on judicial reform. Press conferences were held in March and August of this year to release the Alliance's monitoring opinions. Regardless of party rotation, the Judicial Reform Foundation has, throughout the 23 years since its establishment, firmly and actively monitored the government's promotion of judicial reform from within civil society, and its stance of pursuing a fair judiciary remains unchanged.

3. Condemning the Report for Maliciously Misinterpreting the Efforts of the Judicial Reform Foundation as a Civil Organization and Its Participants Toward Judicial Reform

   Government officials and holders of public authority should perform their duties in accordance with the law, be subject to strict public scrutiny, and have their actions open to public comment. Nevertheless, this report deliberately linked this Foundation with its former or current members, maliciously twisting the efforts of the Judicial Reform Foundation as a civil organization and its participants toward judicial reform. This Foundation expresses its regret and condemns this report. We call upon the media to uphold an objective and neutral stance, refrain from innuendo, and avoid misinterpreting objective events in a way that creates confrontation and harms Taiwan's values in the pursuit of fairness and justice!