A mass-circulation Chinese-language daily newspaper vowed on Tuesday to file an appeal with the Taipei District Court against a ruling that fined one its reporters for refusing to disclose the source of his information while testifying in a "stock vultures" case. The paper accused the court of violating the principles of freedom of the press.
United Daily News reporter Kao Nien-yi was fined NT$30,000 for a second consecutive day as he remained mum on the identity of his source in a story on an insider trading scandal that allegedly involved senior government officials. According to the court ruling Kao will be fined NT$30,000 for each day that he refuses to reveal his source.
The prosecutors said they believed that Lee Chin-cheng, former director of the Financial Supervisory Commission's Examination Bureau and a key suspect in the insider trading case now before the court, might have leaked critical information to Kao, whose report on March 16, 2005 was used as a tool by Lee's stock-trading friends, who have also been charged for making illicit profits.
Kao reported in his story last year that Lee gave his friends, known as "The Vultures," advance information on a government probe of the illegal trading of the shares of a small computer company called Power Quotient International Co. Armed with the information, "The Vultures" profited by "selling short" on the company's stock. This led to an extremely volatile stock market during that time.
Kao was one of six witnesses summoned by the Taiwan High Court on Monday for deposition, to assist the court in determining Lee's contacts with Lin Ming-ta, head of "The Vultures."
Kao appeared at the hearing but refused to tell the judges how and where he had gotten information in his story on the grounds that he was obliged to protect his sources. But the prosecutors argued that Kao was withholding information without a legitimate reason.
The court handed down fines to Kao, claiming that the public's interest in knowing who leaked the information "is obviously larger than the interest involved in the reporter refusing to testify."
The court said that Kao's statement is vital to its determination of Lee's connections with those involved in insider trading and whether Lee had provided stock speculators with classified information under his jurisdiction. Kao had no reason to reject its request made in accordance with the law, it said.
The daily said that keeping its news sources confidential is key to the media's operation, which aims to monitor the exercise of public authority -- a right that should not be damaged by judicial institutions.
Whether a newspaper story has been used to commit a crime has nothing to do with the identity of the story's reporter since it was totally beyond the reporter's control, said the daily.
Moreover, it argued, as the case is still in progress, the court should not violate the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" by handing down a fine to the witness before a conviction has been made.
The daily called on the public to pay attention to this incident, which it said involves the critical issue of press freedom and the operation of the country's democratic system.
Nonetheless, judges said on Tuesday that Kao will continue to be fined for each passing day that he refuses to reveal his news source. The Kao incident marks the first time in Taiwan's judicial history that a local reporter was received this type of penalty.
