On May 29, Taipei's chief district prosecutor convened a meeting for his department. The meeting was to discuss the instructions from the Ministry of Justice on how prosecutors, police and investigators should handle media coverage of the criminal cases they are investigating.
The ministry's instructions are designed to encourage more discreet handling of media coverage of crime stories. On the one hand, the instructions have to be compatible with the principle of not publicizing investigations. On the other hand, they are designed to make journalists' work more convenient.
The original rules in the instructions covered six different circumstances. One rule, for example, stipulated that information which may help suspects escape detention or facilitate false testimonies should be kept secret and not be released to the media. Under other circumstances, information may be released to the media when deemed appropriate. The most recent amendment to the rules, made in February of 1995, brought the number of circumstances to 10 under which no news may be released to the media.
Even though the instructions provide rules to regulate the way prosecutors and investigators handle crime news, not many strictly abide by the rules. Also, no punishment has been meted out to those who violate them. As a result, Article 245 of the Criminal Procedure Law (刑事訴訟法), which promulgates the principle of not publicizing investigations, has become empty words. The public's right to know is then fulfilled, but with the possibility of violating human rights and hindering the administration of justice. In the US, the long-running struggle between freedom of the press and fair trials is another example of the same issue. Amendment VI to the US Constitution stipulates: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." The amendment endows every defendant with the right to a fair trial.
Also, Amendment I clearly guarantees freedom of the press: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."
The conflict between these two different kinds of rights, both guaranteed by the US Constitution, has stirred up debate between journalistic and judicial circles. Since Taiwan does not adopt a jury system, the possibility of media coverage and opinions affecting the independence and judgment of professional judges should not be as serious as it is in the US. However, police, prosecutors and investigators may be violating the principle of not publicizing investigations as established in the Criminal Procedure Law, as well as the justice ministry's rules, when they go all out advertising their performance in the media once a suspect has been caught, or even putting up banners and allowing reporters to take photos of the suspects. That was why a recently passed amendment to Article 245, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that, apart from defense attorneys, all persons participating in an investigation, including prosecutors, their assistant officers and police officers, shall not leak the information revealed by their investigations.
Predictably, with strict enforcement of the regulations, prosecutors and investigators will no longer be so hasty in providing crime news -- whether intentionally or otherwise -- to the media. The media may come under certain limitations in sourcing their crime stories. Now, it may no longer be so easy to fill the "society news" (
Yu Ying-fu is a lawyer.
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