Credit Where It Is Due: Tsai Ing-wen On Free Speech

This is a quick post late on Sunday morning before I jump in the shower and head out of the front door (late in the morning because somebody woke me up at 1am last night on the phone asking to be picked up from the train station...)

Today's Taipei Times carries a front page article about something the DPP leader and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen has reportedly said. Here are the quotes...

“Malicious criticism, twisting facts and spreading rumors on the Internet are definitely very bad things, but if the problem was addressed by legislation, we worry what harm such legislation might do to freedom of speech,” Tsai said in response to media queries while on a visit to Hualien County. “In a democracy, people cherish freedom of speech, especially for a society like Taiwan, which has been through the Martial Law era, and we expect to have freedom of speech.”

I don't have time to dig into this right now, but I do wonder where she draws the line. Are her words here, assuming she has been quoted and translated accurately, intended as a warning that she will not support so-called "hate speech" laws? Or has she indicated otherwise elsewhere?

If Tsai Ing-wen were to oppose in action any and all legislation intended to restrict freedom of expression, then she would deserve no small amount of credit for this as in doing so, she is going against the control-freak instincts of the Leftist mob inside her own party, as well as the collectivist tendencies throughout Taiwanese society that exist outside of the DPP.

Note: I am speaking in the hypothetical. As far as I am concerned, it remains to be seen just how far Tsai would go in the defense of free expression. If she really means it, then all credit to her.