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Reporters ask ministry to define sensitive information

Reporters took the Ministry of National Defense to task yesterday after a military-backed newspaper ran a story revealing information that could be confidential.

The printing of sensitive information has become a touchy subject following the nine-year sentence of Army Major Liu Chih-chung (劉持中) for leaking information to a Power News defense correspondent.

Some national dailies have even begun using no bylines with defense-related stories.

On Monday, the military-run Youth Daily ran a story about the navy's successful monitoring in January of a Russian-made Sovremenny-class frigate as it passed through the Taiwan Strait to be delivered to China.

In the report, the Youth Daily described in detail the entire monitoring process, which was carried out by a navy Knox-class frigate.

The No. 938 Ningyang trailed the Sovremenny-class frigate, the second of its kind China has ordered from Russia, for as long as 10 hours, the report said.

It moved very close to the Russian-made ship at times, within a distance of only 5,000 to 6,000 meters.

The Ningyang had to brave rough waves while following the Sovremenny-class frigate, with most of the crew members getting sea-sick as a result, the report said.

Such a detailed report of the navy's monitoring of the Sovremenny-class frigate has left reporters at many of Taiwan's privately run news organizations wondering what message the defense ministry was trying to send.

The information was similar to information leaked by Major Liu, reporters argued during the weekly Ministry of National Defense press conference yesterday.

The Power News defense correspondent, Hung Che-cheng (洪哲政), who wrote the report that sent Major Liu to prison, was one of the individuals to speak up.

Hung's report, which ran on May 18 of last year, just days before President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration, mentioned the military's sighting of three Chinese military vessels off the northeastern coast.

"The two incidents should be fundamentally the same since they are both about the military's effective control of waters off Taiwan," Hung said.

Other reporters joined Hung in questioning the ministry's information classification standards.

Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Wang Chueh (王玨) answered the questions on behalf of the ministry, saying the two incidents are very different and cannot be compared.

"The Youth Daily's report on the navy's monitoring of the Sovremenny-class frigate is aimed at introducing to the public the navy's ability to carry out missions under bad weather conditions," Wang said.

"We thank the Youth Daily for making the report. They have not disclosed any military secrets, since the Sovremenny's passage through the Taiwan Strait was reported by other newspapers in January," he said.
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