April Fools' Day story backfires on Taiwan paper

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=593 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>World
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published April 4, 2009

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>April Fools' Day story backfires on Taiwan paper

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(Taipei)
A TAIWANESE newspaper's April Fools' Day story that two giant pandas gifted by China were fakes backfired as politicians and zoo officials failed to see the funny side. The English daily Taipei Times ran a story on Wednesday's science section saying the animals had been exposed as 'Wenzhou brown forest bears that had been dyed' to resemble pandas.
It also quoted a fictional zookeeper as saying that she became suspicious when the bears 'began to spend almost all of their waking hours having sex', as pandas are known for their low sex drive. 'Their behaviour caused chaos. Children screamed and parents became irate,' he said.
The report also pretended to quote Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang as saying: 'We hope that our Taiwanese friends enjoy the gift of two extremely rare Wenzhou brown forest bears.'
However, Taipei zoo director Jason Yeh was not amused and demanded a correction of the report he said had 'seriously damaged' panda conservation education. 'We urge the newspaper to correct this improper story as it sends the wrong message. The joke has gone too far which not only hurt its credibility but the conservation education,' Mr Yeh said yesterday.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The zoo had received dozens of phone calls locally and from abroad complaining about the article, he said.
The Taipei Times has defended its move, saying readers should be capable of telling a joke from the truth.
'April Fools' Day jokes highlight an important aspect of the consumption of media: that readers and viewers should keep a critical mind when they read stories or watch TV,' it said.
The online version of the story ended with the phrase 'Happy April Fools' Day!' and had received more than 22,000 hits as of yesterday.
The pandas, called Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, were given to Taiwan in December. 'Tuanyuan' - a combination of the Chinese characters used in the pandas' names - means 'reunion' or 'unity'. -- AFP

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