Article 7 of the Publication Act provides: "The Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan at the central government level and the provincial (municipal) government and county (city) government at the local government level shall be designated as the competent authorities of this Act." The Publications Regulation Guidelines of July 22, 1987, promulgated by the Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan, provide the authority to establish a coordinating and enforcement committee in a municipality. The committee shall have the responsibilities, inter alia, of directing an enforcement team of which the Director of the Department of Information of such a city shall be the commissioner. The Director shall have the power to issue an inspection card to the team members, consisting of staff assigned from the Departments of Information, Police, Education, and Social Services. However, the assigned staff can only use such inspection cards for the purpose of identification. By no means does the issuance of an inspection card constitute an authorization of any illegal search or inspection. The power so delegated to issue such inspection cards does not go beyond the scope of the enforcement procedures; therefore, there is no issue of unconstitutionality. Nevertheless, the practice of issuing such inspection cards to persons other than civil officers of the city agencies has been in contravention of the contemplated purpose stated above and shall be discontinued.

       Article 7 of the Publication Act provides: "The Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan at the central government level and the provincial (municipal) government and county (city) government at the local government level shall be designated as the competent authorities of this Act." Articles 36 through 43 of the Act authorize the competent authorities to impose sanctions on any publication*s violation of any rules thereof. The competent authorities may censure, impose a fine, prohibit any sale, distribution, or importation, seize and confiscate publications, suspend publication for a definite period of time, and revoke publication registration. Since publication registration information may touch upon many fields, the Government Information Office of the Executive Yuan promulgated the Publications Regulation Guidelines through an order on July 22, 1987, numbered (76)Ming-Ban-Er-Tze (09225), prescribing the formation of a coordinating and enforcement committee in a municipality. The committee shall have the responsibilities, inter alia, of directing an enforcement team of which the Director of the Department of Information of the city shall be the commissioner. The Director shall have the power to issue an inspection card to the team members, consisting of staff assigned from the Departments of Information, Police, Education, and Social Services. However, the assigned staff can only use such inspection cards for the purpose of identification. By no means does the issuance of an inspection card constitute an authorization of any illegal search or inspection. The power so delegated to issue such inspection cards does not go beyond the scope of the enforcement procedures; therefore, there is no issue of unconstitutionality. Nevertheless, the practice of issuing such inspection cards to persons other than civil officers of the city agencies has been in contravention of the contemplated purpose above and shall be discontinued. This interpretation is confined to the issuance of the inspection card and any other matters regarding the regulations of publications are not subject to this interpretation.

*Translated by Joe Y. C. Wu.