The Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday said it had asked Web sites that publish information on sexual assault victims to withdraw the information or face fines.
According to the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act (性侵害犯罪防治法), digital media and Web sites are among media that are not allowed to report or record the names of sexual assault victims, or publish any information that can be used to trace their identity, the bureau said.
If offending Web sites do not withdraw the photos and -information by -specified deadlines, they will be subject to fines between NT$60,000 and NT$600,000, it said.
The bureau’s warning came amid a controversy over the online posting of a photo of a junior high school student who was sexually abused and murdered by a repeat sexual offender in February.
Lucifer Chu (朱學恆), founder of the Fantasy Culture and Arts Foundation, not only posted the photo of the victim on his blog, but also asked others to write cards to the student’s parents to console them.
The Ministry of the Interior called the posting illegal, but Chu said he discussed posting the photo and information related to memorial activities with the victim’s parents beforehand.
“I felt that this needed to be done and was worth doing,” Chu said, adding that he regretted the Ministry of the Interior’s strict interpretation of the matter and the ruling that posting the picture was illegal.
Chu said he had no intention of withdrawing the picture from his blog. If the ministry does fine him, he said he would persist until “I’ve been fined to the day I’m broke.”
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