7-Eleven denies boycotting new Business Weekly edition

The island's largest convenience store chain issued the denial in response to a letter sent by Business Weekly Editor-in-Chief Kuo Yi-ling to readers late Wednesday.

The letter stated that editorial staff received information earlier in the day that 7-Eleven stores would suspend sales of the magazine's latest No. 1,313 issue. “By 7 p.m. Wednesday, the information had been verified and all copies of the weekly were 'frozen' in the hands of the distributor,” Kuo wrote in the letter posted on the magazine's website.

Kuo also noted that the weekly attaches great importance to any attempt to boycott its distribution. “It was not just a conflict of interest between a single distribution chain and a single media outlet, but rather a matter that concerns the future of Taiwan's press freedom,” Kuo wrote.

She continued to stress that Taiwan's media freedom will be at stake if the nation's largest chain of 4,800 convenience stores declines to sell the magazine simply because it bears a 422-word article on the chain's personnel reshuffle issue.

In response to Kuo's accusation, spokeswoman Lily Lin of President Chain denied that her company had boycotted the Business Weekly. “It was just mismanagement,” Lin said,” and problems in the back-end distribution system were to blame for the delay in putting the weekly on shelves of our convenience stores on time Wednesday.”

After emergency coordination, the magazine was to be distributed to all 7-Eleven chain stores yesterday.

The convenience store chain later explained its side of the issue in detail in a notice on its Facebook page, but this apparently was not enough to appease Kuo, who said in a second letter issued Thursday that President Chain should offer a “better explanation.”

In the second letter, Kuo also extended her gratitude to netizens for their positive response to her first letter, saying that their support has effectively forced President Chain to resume sales of Business Weekly on Thursday.

Kuo stressed that as the most-read weekly magazine in the Chinese-speaking world, the Business Weekly will keep safeguard Taiwan's press freedom and will not utilize news pages to take revenge on others.

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