Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) yesterday ended a five-month-old policy requiring arrested adult criminal suspects to wear masks in front of the media, bowing to critics who say that the policy protects criminals.
At the same time, however, he said that the police would end the common practice of inviting reporters to visit police stations to film and photograph suspects.
Despite regulations that restrict the release of details of cases under investigation, the media have traditionally broadcast footage of arrested suspects.
Human-rights groups frequently complain about the practice of parading suspects, saying it seriously damages their rights.
"Apart from juveniles, no suspects will wear the mask anymore. But, at the same time, police stations are not going to actively offer the media the right to film suspects in the future," Yu said in the press conference.
"Suspects in juvenile cases will be required to wear masks," he said.
Yu said that the masks would be provided to those under 18 in accordance with the Criminal Code and the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases (
At the press conference, Wang Chin-wang (王進旺), director-general of the National Police Administration, said that the police would only provide the media with pictures or television footage of suspects who are sought by the authorities or who are unidentified.
To protect the rights of arrested suspects, police departments started requiring them to wear masks in front of the media last August, a practice adopted from Hong Kong.
But the public has expressed some dissatisfaction with the masks, complaining that those suspected of involvement in sexual offenses and repeat offenders should be identified.
TSU Legislator Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), who has pushed the Ministry of the Interior to revise the policy in the Legislative Yuan, said that he had received numerous phone calls from his constituents complaining that the policy damaged their right to know.
Yesterday's announcement, however, was criticized by human-rights activists as an indication of the MOI's poor grasp of human rights.
The Taiwan Association for Human Rights, yesterday told the Chinese-language media that wearing the mask shouldn't be an issue at all.
"The issue is how to treat suspects as innocent, before they are proven guilty," it said.
Another TSU lawmaker, Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), said that exposing suspects to the media was the problem, not whether they wear masks or not.
"The media's coverage is a judgement on those suspects," Lo said. "As long as the police departments do indeed strictly prohibit the media from filming the suspects, I don't think the new practice will offend human rights."
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