Taipei, April 3, SPA -- Taiwan's government spokesman was forced to stepdown Tuesday over accusations by Fuji Television Network that he hadtried to intervene in the Japanese company's sale of shares in aTaiwanese media outlet, his boss said according to dpa. "Director Cheng submitted his resignation to me yesterday, sayinghe did not want his case to become the target of attack to the rulingteam," Premier Su Tseng-chang said in a brief news conference. "I have no choice but to accept his resignation despite hisoutstanding performance in the past year," said the premier, who hadbeen criticized by opposition parliamentarians for adopting doublestandards in order to protect his spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang. Cheng, who headed the Government Information Office, the island'sprint media regulator, recently came under fire for improperlyintervening in Fuji's sale of shares in Taiwan Television Enterprise(TTV). The controversy emerged when Sumio Hasegawa, an adviser to FujiTV's chairman, held a news conference in Taipei last week, allegingthat the spokesman tried to persuade Fuji sell it's stake TTV to apro-government newspaper. Hasegawa said that during a trip to Taipei, Cheng invited him to alunch on January 17 and asked that Fuji TV sell its 5-per-cent stakein TTV to Taiwan's Liberty Times Group.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/437931