Journalist denies seeing classified documents

A journalist accused of the improper handling of classified documents told the Taiwan High Court yesterday that he had never seen two of the military documents which prosecutors allege were among four documents that had been in his possession until yesterday.

"I've never seen the two documents that the prosecutors have shown to the court," Hung Che-cheng (洪哲政), a former journalist with Power Evening News said.

Hung was charged by the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office in early this month in connection with a report about the Han Kuang military exercises of July 2000.

Prosecutors said that the materials were sent by Hung's friend, Major Liu Chih-chung (劉持中), and used in the report in the Power Evening News -- a paper that has since closed its doors -- in its July 29, 2000 edition.

Hung, insisted that he had never received any "classified documents" from his sources, while Liu, who began a two-year sentence for leaking classified documents following a closed-door military trial earlier this month, testified that he had sent two documents to Hung which were not marked "classified."

Liu said that he sent the two documents in a bid to improve the image of Taiwan's military, and emphasized "I didn't do anything that would necessitate an apology to the country."

Prosecutors argued, however, that Hung must have had access to the classified documents in order to be able to write his report, which, they said contained classified information.

Hung insisted that the information for his report had come from numerous interviews.

"I don't understand why there was no problem about my report on the same exercise last year," he said.

Hung also said that the prosecutors' only evidence was Liu's testimony and the report itself.

Persons found guilty of the improper handling of classified military documents may be sentenced to prison terms of between three and 10 years. There is no legal definition of "classified," however, and the Ministry of National Defense's procedure for classifying documents is itself a secret. Classified documents must be labeled as such.

Hung added, "The absence of a clear definition of `classified documents' is very dangerous to freedom of speech. This could be the government's excuse to censor news in the future."

The Association of Taiwan Journalists has been pressing the government since last year to address the issue and provide a working definition of classified information before it threatens any further prosecutions.

"I hope that the judge handles the case with due concern for freedom and democracy. The military spends public money on these exercises, and the public has the right to know what they have done," Hung said.