Taipei district prosecutors yesterday searched the headquarters of the China Times Express (中時晚報), which last Saturday published secret records of the interrogation of two suspects and a witness in the Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍) case. Liu is former chief cashier of the National Security Bureau and is currently being sought by police on embezzlement charges.
The China Times Group, to which the China Times Express belongs, is one of the biggest media companies in Taiwan and celebrated its 50th anniversary the day before yesterday, receiving congratulations and compliments from President Chen Shui-bain (陳水扁), among others.
The China Times Express held a press conference yesterday afternoon and published a statement objecting to what it called an "improper blockade" of the newspaper's office by the prosecutors and "violation of freedom of the press."
But the prosecution said the search was legal and was a necessary means of preventing further intelligence leaks that might jeopardize national security.
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) confirmed that the unpublished part of the interrogations contained top secret information concerning the country's intelligence work in China. He expressed support for prosecutors.
The China Times Express on Sept. 30 published part of the interrogation records of the NSB's chief accountant Hsu Ping-chiang (徐炳強) and two of Liu's subordinates, Chen Pei-chieh (陳珮玨) and Cho Chang-ting (卓昶廷). The three were questioned by the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau on Sept. 26 for their suspected involvement in the Liu case.
After questioning several China Times Express journalists in the intervening period, Taipei District Prosecutors Office yesterday launched the search around 9:15am.
Prosecutors searched the desks of two reporters, Sung Chao-chin (
The search at the newspaper's office ended at 11am, and a newslist was taken away. No copies of the interrogation records were found, according to the newspaper's editor in chief, Chen Sho-kuo (
The prosecution did not specify what materials they had found.
The newspaper and the prosecution gave differing accounts of the search.
Chen said that prosecutors and police had blockaded the paper's news room and prevented personnel from leaving.
The newspaper released a statement in which it said it "respects the prosecutors' search as long as it is in accordance with the law, but regrets the improper blockade, which has affected the newspaper's editing operations and harmed freedom of the press."
The newspaper's attorney said that legal action remained a possibility.
But Huang Chuan-lu (
"Moderate control of the search site was necessary for investigation purposes, but we did not bar personnel from coming in and going out," Huang said, stressing that the only places in the news room that were searched were the two reporters' work stations.
Chang Wen-cheng (張文政), spokesman for the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, said that the content of the interrogation records published by the paper was "almost identical" to that of the original, except that it only covered about one third of the original.
He added, in a formal statement released by the prosecutors' office in the afternoon, that "the rest of the interrogation record refers to secret information, including the NSB's secret accounts." He said the primary aim of the search was to prevent the media from publishing the rest of the interrogation records which, he said, risked affecting the investigation and harming national security.
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