萬國法律事務所

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has passed an amendment to Article 245 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which stipulates that public prosecutors, judicial police or any other person performing his duty under law during an investigation must not make known to the public (公開) or otherwise disclose (揭露) any information acquired through the performance of his investigation, unless otherwise permitted by law, or unless such disclosure is necessary for the protection of the public interest or other legitimate interest. The Legislative Yuan has also authorized the Judicial Yuan to formulate the Regulations for Non-disclosure during Criminal Investigation (the “Regulations”) with the Executive Yuan.

The original concept has been described as “公開揭露” and thus has been easily utilized and translated by some people as meaning that so long as information is disclosed privately, but publicly, the disclosure is legal. In order to prevent this type of “private public disclosure” from happening, the new stipulation prohibits both “making information known to the public” and “disclosure of such information”. (公開 or 揭露).

The Legislative Yuan has also resolved that the Judicial Yuan must, within 5 months after the passage of the new provision, formulate the Regulations with the Executive Yuan and send the Regulations to The Legislative Yuan for reference. In order to formulate the Regulations, public hearings will be held where the relative authorities of the Executive Yuan, representatives from non-government circles, experts, and scholars will participate and express their opinions. The Regulations shall also include procedures for investigating violations of the new amendment.

Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan has indicated that the Regulations should be completed by the end of this year, and will request the Ministry of Justice, which is in charge of criminal investigations, to offer a first draft of the Regulations so that the authorities at the Executive Yuan, such as the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior, can discuss the content of the same.