Ethiotime1
*By Therese Tu
The University of Macau Communication Students’ Society has made an official apology letter and reversed its previous announcement to vote for ceasing student newspaper OrangePost after the newspaper exposed illegal money exchanging cases related to the student union.
The Orange Post is a student-run independent magazine associated with the Communication Society, a sub-organization of the University of Macau Students’ Union that includes all Communication students at the university.
In a recent article published on April 14, OrangePost revealed that the UM Students’ Union (UMSU) and its affiliated organizations were suspected to be involved in some illegal money exchange activities – commonly known as “money exchange party (換錢黨).
A “money exchange party” refers to some people who illegally exchange foreign currency with others at a more beneficial exchange rate, to avoid the less favourable exchange rate provided in legal financial institutions.
The student newspaper pointed out that in January this year, a message requiring to exchange MOP patacas to RMB was sent by a former member of the standing committee of UMSU, in an official undergraduate freshmen WeChat group set up by the student union.
According to the article, more than 50 messages related to illegal money exchange were posted in the freshmen Wechat group this year, while no reminders or warnings were made by UMSU who acts as the administrator of the group.
A UM student reported to Orange Post that she transferred a total of RMB3,156 (MOP4,004/US$496) to a member in the WeChat group for exchanging patacas, with no money returned back to her Macau bank account while she was blocked on Wechat by the person.
Also, some student leaders in UMSU were reported to have earned profits by illegal currency exchange using the funds of the student union, several student union members indicated to the post.
On the day the article was published, the OrangePost declared on its Facebook page that they had received an internal email from the UMSU Communication Society, to vote for the ceasing of the newspaper’s operation.
In the internal email, the administrative committee of the Student Communication Society announced that it will vote to stop the operation of the OrangePost, at a regular meeting scheduled on the same date.
However, after a wide discussion among the students due to the email, the Student Communication Society posted an official apology on April 15 over the previous voting decision.
In the apology statement, the student society indicated that the association violated the regulations of the student union, as they didn’t notify all the members of the administrative committee five days in advance before the holding of the meeting.
Therefore, the meeting was declared to be invalid, with all discussions and results cancelled “due to such administrative negligence and mistakes,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the OrangePost officially replied on its Facebook page that it hopes that the Student Communication Society “keep its promise of respecting the freedom of the press, respecting the newspaper, and supporting the development of the student journalism industry”.
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