A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday.
Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung.
He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said.
Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times
Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named Ma Te youshi ma (馬德有事嗎, What’s with Ma Te?) that is broadcast on YouTube channels associated with CTi News, prosecutors said.
He made screenshots of engagement data from his social media account as proof that he had allegedly completed the task Huang had asked him to do, they said.
Lin had used his bank accounts since 2013 to funnel bribes from Huang to military personnel in exchange for classified information, they said, adding that he was paid in cryptocurrency.
Lin allegedly produced videos featuring retired and active military personnel expressing their intention to surrender to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, prosecutors said.
The service members in the videos also made promises to hand over classified information to China, and allegedly gave a portion of the bribes they received to Lin in cryptocurrency, they said.
“Lin, as a well-known journalist, had a responsibility to hold the government to account and safeguard the public’s right to information in his reporting, but instead served a hostile foreign power for many years for personal gain,” they said.
He had “submitted stories, which were supposed to be objective for a foreign entity’s approval before broadcasting them, in an attempt at influencing public opinion, harming national security,” they said.
Lin was charged over alleged contraventions of the Anti-Infiltration (反滲透法), Anti-Money Laundering (洗錢防制法) and Anti-Corruption (貪污治罪條例) acts, they said.
Prosecutors said they demanded sentences totaling 12 years of imprisonment for Lin.
CTi TV and CTi News’ broadcast license was revoked and expired in 2020 after the National Communications Commission rejected its renewal application, citing what it called dysfunctional internal control mechanisms and repeated breaches of broadcasting regulations.
The network remains the focus of a legal dispute, as opposition parties say its license should be restored.
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