Human rights groups yesterday said that it was far more important that law enforcement officers avoid making investigations public than whether such suspects are masked.
"Masking is a plus when it concerns the human rights of a suspect. But in accordance with Article 245 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) -- which stipulates that an investigation should not be made public -- should be the focus of our discussion," said Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正), the president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
Lin made his remarks at a press conference held by his organization, the Judicial Reform Foundation and the Taipei Bar Association at the Taiwan Bar Association's conference room yesterday morning.
In response to Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien's (余政憲) Tuesday decision to end a five-month-old policy requiring arrested adult criminal suspects to wear masks in front of the media, Lin said the way that law enforcement officers handle criminal cases should be the focus of the discussion.
Under the new policy -- apart from juveniles -- suspects will not wear masks anymore.
But the policy also stipulates that the police must stop alerting the media to cover their arrests. Juvenile suspects will still be required to wear masks at all times when in public places.
Yu announced last August that all arrested suspects -- including adults and juveniles -- should wear masks when they could be exposed to public view.
At the press conference yesterday, Lin said that some law enforcement officers did not strictly stick to the rules that they should not make the investigation public and allow the media to film the suspects during the investigation.
"Investigations should be classified and law enforcement officers should know what to tell and what not to tell," Lin said. "In addition, police who allow suspects' to show their faces in front of cameras seem to be telling the public these people are guilty before the court says they are. That is the human-rights violation we are really concerned about."
Yu yesterday emphasized that the media will definitely be prohibited from filming and photographing arrested suspects inside police stations or departments, but human-rights organizations said that the measure is not enough.
Reacting to critics, Yu held another conference yesterday at which he insisted that the new practice would not damage suspects' human rights.
A representative from the Ministry of Interior's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) was lambasted by human-rights groups for refusing during the press conference to promise that police would abide by the new policy.
Kao Chen-sheng (
Shirley Lin (
"Whether inside or outside the police station, there shouldn't be any excuse," she said
"If the police can't strictly prohibit the media from filming suspects, they should mask the suspects," Lin said.
A photograph reporter from news channels, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told colleagues that police stations have notified them that the police will still invite them to film suspects as long as the reporters agree to report the filming as a result of a chance encounter.
"They still want to promote their achievements," the reporter said.
"Human rights is important, but the practice would make the public unaware of criminal behavior. There are numerous cases where suspects repeatedly commit crimes before they are prosecuted," said Chen Chao-jen (
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