The signatories also issued a four-point statement urging the government to protect the freedom of speech of the movement's student initiators, who have been staging a round-the-clock sit-in demonstration at Liberty Square in downtown Taipei since Friday night to champion their cause.

The signatures and statement were forwarded to the student demonstrators by 50-plus representatives who visited the student protesters at Liberty Square at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall complex near the Presidential Office Monday evening.

Hung Tseng-ling, an assistant professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Journalism, said she and many of her colleagues support the students' call for amendments to the current assembly law to uphold people's freedom of expression as protected by the Constitution.

The four-point statement issued by the academics also urged relevant authorities to investigate what they called police officers' abuse of power and infringement of human rights in dealing with recent street protests mounted by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and other pro-independent activists during a Chiense official's visit to Taiwan.

Under the current assembly law, would-be demonstrators must apply for government approval before taking to the streets.

The student demonstrators said such a regulation should be replaced by a "reporting" system under which organizers of street protests just need to report their plans to local police offices.

The student demonstrators began their sit-in protest in front of the Executive Yuan Nov. 6, demanding that President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan apologize for what they called the "rough" tactics used by police to deal with demonstrators during the visit by China's top negotiator with Taiwan, Chen Yunlin.

Police evicted them from the Executive Yuan premises Friday evening because they didn't have a permit to demonstrate there in the first place.

The students then moved to Liberty Square, where they have since continued their round-the-clock sit-in protest, despite inclement weather over the weekend.

On Monday, many university students in other cities, including Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung, also staged sit-in protests in support of the "strawberry movement."

Education Minister Cheng Jei-cheng also paid avisit to the student protesters Monday to show his concern for their health and promised them that the government will come up with a feasible amendment bill after holding a public hearing on the assembly law revision proposal. Student protesters are welcome to join the hearing to air their views, Cheng said.