The Taiwan High Court fined a United Daily News reporter NT$30,000 for a third day in a row yesterday after he again refused to identify his sources for a news story that is part of an insider stock trading case.
Kao Nien-yi remained silent on the question of who gave him the information that he reported on March 16. The story related to an insider trading scandal in which senior government officials were allegedly involved.
Prosecutors believe Lee Chin-cheng, former director of the Examination Bureau at the Financial Supervisory Commission and a key suspect in the case, might have leaked critical information to Kao, whose story was used as a tool by Lee's stock-trading friends who stand accused of making illicit profits.
Liu Shou-sung, a spokesman for the court, said the court handed down the fine because it claimed Kao had "neither a proper reason nor the right" to refuse testimony.
The United Daily News has pledged to lodge a formal complaint against the fines, claiming that freedom of the press and the democratic system are at stake.
