TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Executive Yuan on Thursday (Oct.19) approved the amendments to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act and the Political Archives Act, putting an end to the indefinite secrecy of national classified archives.
An official of the Executive Yuan pointed out earlier that day that one focal point of the amendments is to change the provision of "permanent secrecy" to a "periodic review of the necessity of extending confidentiality."
The official said that current laws violate the spirit of transparency and public access to government information; hence, the revisions aim to review the need for information confidentiality to be kept for over 30 years.
At most, secrecy can be delayed by increments of ten years, and those classified for more than 60 years must be approved by higher authorities to prevent excessive secrecy.
Furthermore, to monitor contacts between people with classified information and foreigners, mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, or Macau citizens, new reporting obligations and punishments will be established for the personnel in contact with secret information when they return to Taiwan.