TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's fishing industry threatened legal action Tuesday (April 30) against Greenpeace over a documentary titled "Before You Eat" if the airing continues and called on the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) to hold a press conference to clarify the situation.
On Friday (April 26), the Fisheries Agency accused the film of damaging the reputation of Taiwan's remote sea fishery and requested Greenpeace to stop broadcasting it.
The fishing industry, in a joint statement, said the documentary includes footage of an Indonesian crew member who died on a fishing vessel in 2020 and whose body was thrown overboard. The film repeatedly intersperses images of Taiwanese fishing vessels, causing confusion and leading to international misunderstandings about Taiwan's fishing industry.
According to local media reports, Greenpeace said on Tuesday (April 30) that it did not produce the film but merely assisted in its online distribution. It has been shown in the United States and Indonesia. The film aims to present global fishing industry labor issues from fishermen's perspective, without specifying that the fishing vessel was from Taiwan.
On April 16, the Indonesian Fishermen's Union, which participated in the rescue, clarified that the incident occurred on a Chinese fishing vessel, not a Taiwanese one, according to the statement.
Yang Ke-cheng, secretary-general of the Taiwan Tuna Longline Association, and Lin Han-yu, director-general of the Taiwan Tuna Association, called on Greenpeace to stop showing the film or face legal action.
Lin warned that the airing of such a misleading film could damage Taiwan's image during ongoing negotiations for the Taiwan-U.S. Initiative on 21st-Century Trade.
Chen Wen-chin, director-general of the Keelung Fishermen's Association, insisted that the MOA must hold a press conference to explain the facts publicly.
