Next magazine senior reporter Hsieh Zhong-liang (
He said the article was about corruption in an agency operating "illegally and outside of the government structure," and he said that his actions did not breach national security.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsieh was speaking to reporters outside the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office, before entering the office for an interview with prosecutors. Last Thursday, prosecutors charged him with breaching national security and issued a ban on his leaving the country.
Hsieh admitted that he had received classified documents from a secret source and said that he would not reveal who that was.
He said the source did not tell him what the documents contained before transferring them to him a month ago. After reviewing them, he said, he concluded that they related to a "scandal" rather than to state secrets concerning national security and he therefore decided to write about them.
"Prosecutors took all the evidence when they raided my apartment and my office last week. I do not have any other documents to turn in. I'll certainly tell them how I got the documents but I'm afraid I cannot tell anybody who my source was.
"In the meantime, I do not regret what I've done because I don't think I've done anything wrong," he added.
Hsieh also said that no political party had been involved in providing him with the information. Indeed, he told reporters, he felt sorry for his brother, Hsieh Kung-bing (
"It has nothing to do with my brother," Hsieh said.
The TSU on Wednesday accused PFP Chairman James Soong of having been in possession of the documents long before they were sent to Hsieh, citing media reports that Soong had claimed to have received information regarding the secret funds in June last year.
Lo Ming-ton (
Next magazine last Thursday published Hsieh's story about two secret NSB accounts that contain more than NT$3.5 billion -- and the alleged embezzlement of over NT$192 million by former NSB chief cashier, Colonel Liu Kuan-chun (
Prosecutors then raided the magazine's office and printing plant, as well as Hsieh's apartment, confiscating 160,000 copies of the magazine.
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