Taipei, Dec. 4 (CNA) A lawyer for President Chen Shui-bian asked the Chinese-language daily China Times Wednesday to correct a front-page article that said the president received a political donation in 1994 from a controversial business woman.
In a letter to the daily, lawyer Lindy Chern asked the newspaper to correct what she calls a groundless story which claimed that a check of NT$4.5 million (US$130,434) given by business woman Su Hui-chen to then-Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Frank Hsieh ended up in Chen's war chest in his bid for Taipei mayor in 1994.
Claiming that the report has seriously damaged the president's reputation, the lawyer demanded the paper to correct the report in its Thursday issue on the front page. The correction should also take up the same space as the original story, she added.
In addition to quoting the president as denying that he had ever received the check mentioned in the story, the lawyer asked the paper to disclose the sources of its claims that Chen had been told by Hsieh late last week that the check ended up in Chen's coffer.
The lawyer asked the paper to reveal in its Thursday edition whether it has ever verified its claim, and why it didn't bother to check its information with the president or his aide before published it.