What Ever Happened to Letters to the Editor?

Sure, magazines love reader feedback. But staffers at press magnate Jimmy Lai's Next Magazine were caught mid-sentence last week when 40 club-wielding thugs broke into the offices of the muckraking weekly's Taipei edition. The assailants, arriving in a small caravan of four motorcycles, eight cars and an RV, wore black jackets embroidered with the characters of the Taiwanese gang Heavenly Way. The triad troupe smashed computer monitors, glass doors and windows—and five security guards—before swiping the motherboard from the surveillance system and making their escape. Lai can't seem to stay out of trouble in Taiwan. Last week's events, Lai's third run-in with the triads, were probably a response to a hard-hitting exposé of the Heavenly Way gang that ran in August; the magazine is still dodging official flak from a story it broke last spring about an illegal government slush fund. Complains chief editor Pei Wei: "The police and prosecutors have worked as the authorities' hitmen, trying to keep the media from reporting government corruption." Lai, who got his start in Hong Kong, remains optimistic about his Taiwan ventures. "Press freedom is there," he says, "but don't expect everything to go smoothly, because old habits of the government or other powers are still unchanged." Despite angry politicians and gangsters, plans remain firm for a late spring launch of a Taiwan edition of his Hong Kong broadsheet Apple Daily. "Just because we're still breaking the ice," Lai says, "doesn't mean the ice won't fall eventually."