Prosecutors from the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office raided the offices and printing plant of Next magazine and the apartment of one of its reporters yesterday morning, seizing thousands of copies of the latest edition of the magazine and accusing Next of leaking state secrets.
The magazine's management protested against the raids, saying they were a violation of press freedom. The controversial edition was later reprinted and delivered to newsstands last night.
Three prosecutors led the raids at 6:30am, confiscating 160,000 copies of Next edition No. 48, which contained stories about the alleged embezzlement of more than NT$192 million by former National Security Bureau (NSB) chief cashier Colonel Liu Kuan-chun (
The magazine's reports also allege that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) sanctioned the establishment of two secret committees -- code-named Fengtien (奉天) and Dangyang (當陽) -- under the recommendation of then-NSB chief Ying Tsung-wen (殷宗文), to oversee a secret fund of about NT$3.5 billion, which was deposited at the Farmer's Bank of China (農民銀行).
The two committees were set up to handle secret diplomatic efforts and conduct diplomatic research.
According to Next, starting in 1994, Lee used the funds to prop up diplomatic relations with South Africa, pay for study on the "state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations announced in 1999, and established the Taiwan Research Institute (TRI, 台綜院).
"Some of the secret activities [Lee funded] contributed to Taiwan's national security, but they were in violation of the law," Next report said.
Shih Liang-po (施良波), spokesman for the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office, which is in charge of investigating national security offenses, said the office received a report from the NSB accusing Next of violating Article 109 of the Criminal Code.
Article 109 states that disclosing or delivering a document, plan, information or other secret regarding the ROC's national defense is punishable by a term of imprisonment for not less than one year and not more than seven.
Next's executive editor Pei Wei (裴偉) rebuffed the NSB's allegations, noting that the China Times (中國時報) had already published information about the two secret accounts.
"It's ridiculous to seize the magazines and search our offices. This is a scandal under investigation and has nothing to do with national security," Pei told reporters.
"We will keep printing the magazine and try to deliver this edition to all newsstands on time."
"The NSB has been legalized for a long time, and its functions should be monitored by the legislature. But the bureau just used its money as it wanted. For instance, one member of the Mingte committee spent NT$70,000 to have a suit made and Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文, current chairperson of the Mainland Affairs Council] received NT$120,000 as a New Year's gift in 2000," Pei said.
He declined to give any details about how the magazine got the information about the funds.
Magazine employees say they worked on the three stories for over a week and that most of the time was spent interviewing NSB officials.
"The pubic has the right to know and the prosecutors' searches violate the freedom of press," Pei said.
PFP .egislator Diane Lee (
"There should be a clear definition of national security before prosecutors search a magazine's premises," Lee said.
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) defended the prosecutors' actions yesterday.
"There should be certain limits on press freedom. News reports should not break the law and offices of newspapers should not be exempt from searches," Chen told reporters.
Meanwhile, the China Times said its source for its stories yesterday was Liu Kuan-chu.
The China Times yesterday published three full-pages of coverage of the documents, which they said were provided by the defected former NSB chief cashier Colonel Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍).
Liu fled the country in September 2000 with a fake passport and his whereabouts are unknown. He is wanted for embezzlement.
Prosecutors declined yesterday to say why they didn't search the newspaper's premises.
On March 5 the Control Yuan found a senior adviser to the president and the secretary general of the National Security Council (NSC), as well as four current and former senior NSB officials, guilty of dereliction of duty in their oversight in the handling of the secret bank account.
The NSB issued a news release after the announcement of the Control Yuan's verdicts yesterday. It stated that the NSB respected the verdicts and that the Liu case happened because "the NSB did not have a sound administrative mechanism to monitor the secret intelligence budget."
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS