A former top-ranking public relations official, Lo Chih-hao (
Lo, who had been in charge of media relations while serving as secretary to the director of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (
Leaking secrets that are not related to national defense is considered a minor offense, carrying no more than a three-year jail term under Taiwan law.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The court also ruled yesterday that Lo will not be permitted to file another appeal against his two-year sentence. However, the prosecution can still do so.
"I guess no civil servant would dare to speak to the media because they could easily get jailed for doing so, just like me," Lo said. "The entire court proceedings were weird. When I made my final arguments, one of the three judges ... was reading English-language magazines on the bench."
"My former bosses spoke up for me in writing to the court and they acknowledged I was only doing my job in passing the information on to the media. But what they said was totally ignored by the court," said the 40-year-old man, who is currently employed at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
"If the ruling that it's a crime for me to pass the information to the media is correct, all government PR personnel are guilty of committing crimes every day," he added.
The court found Lo guilty of leaking information on Taiwan's air negotiations with Thailand and Cambodia as well as information on a build-operate-transfer project, but dismissed the prosecution's corruption charges.
The court ruled that Lo had leaked the secrets regarding the air negotiations between 1998 and 1999 to Chen Ju-chiao (陳如嬌), a reporter with the local Chinese-language newspaper, China Times.
The court said the leaks, coming before the negotiations were finalized, could have prompted China to block the progress of the talks and thereby harm Taiwan's national interests.
It was also found that Lo had passed confidential information on a build-operate-transfer bidding project for CKS Airport air cargo terminals to another reporter with the China Times, Chung Ke-hsing (鄭克興), in September of 1998, while the bidding was still in process.
The prosecution had requested a 12-year prison term for Lo on the corruption charges and a lenient sentence for leaking secrets.
The court reasoned that Lo used confidential information to encourage reporters to serve his personal interests, irrespective of national and public interests.
During his trial, Lo argued that he did not leak any "secrets" as the information in question had already been published in a number of news reports before he shared it with reporters.
The court, however, dismissed Lo's argument and said that Lo had crossed a line.
The case, which received widespread news coverage in July 1999, has sparked heated rows over press freedom, as the media itself became the subject of search and seizures by law-enforcement officials.
Journalistic circles strongly criticized law-enforcement officials over the searches of one magazine office and the homes of the two reporters allegedly involved in the case, urging that a draft Freedom of Information law be passed.
The conviction comes just days after a former army major was sentenced to nine years in prison, also for leaking military secrets.
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