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China news tagged with: defamation (13)

• The Retrial of Wu Baoquan

  

  Southern Metropolis News gives an update on the case against Wu Baoquan, who was sentenced on libel charges after expressing support online for farmers fighting local officials over land rights. ESWN translates:

  In July, the Dongsheng district People’s Court re-tried the case. Yesterday, the verdict was delivered.

  The prosecutor pointed out that Wu Baoquan libeled then Ordos city party secretary Yun Feng. Afterwards, Wu Baoquan went to Kangbashi village to act as the spokesperson for the peasants. He accepted more than 295,000 yuan in cash from the peasants. Wu used the Internet, pretended that he was a reporter, used his imagine to make up facts in order to libel others and he did all this for the money. His action has defamed the character and reputation of others as well as seriously endangered local social stability.

  The court said that Wu Baoquan repeatedly published the same content to liberl and insult people. Objectively, his actions were intentional. Furthermore, Wu made up and distorted facts to libel people on the Internet, where the information traveled far, wide and quickly. At the same time, it also seriously endangered local social stability. Therefore, Wu was guity and sentenced to 18 months in jail (which was 6 months less than the previous sentence). Wu said in court that he will not make any further appeal. He is due to be released on October 28 barring any new developments.

  See also a post on the case from Siweiluozi’s blog.

  » Read more
  • September 16, 2009 9:33 PM

• Hu Yong: Defamation Can No Longer Be Used to Restrict Netizen Speech

  

  Translated by Joshua Rosenzweig:

  The public security bureau in Mawei District, Fuzhou, recently detained Guo Baofeng and several other netizens. The lawyer for these detained netizens says that they were detained for posting or re-posting items on the Internet about the “Yan Xiaoling case” in which [Yan was] “brutally gang-raped to death by eight people.” Police have given the reason as “suspected defamation”; when the lawyer requested to meet with the detained individuals, police refused on the grounds that the case “involved state secrets. (See the July 17 Xin Kuai Bao report.)

  These detentions sound quite familiar to us. Like the cases of Wang Shuai, Wu Baoquan, and others, they form a part of a long, long list of names of those bloggers and netizens who have been detained or convicted by organs of public authority for exposing the deeds of local governments. There are two basic elements of most of these types of cases. One is the fervor with which ordinary people use the Internet and employ text or video to expose and broadcast local injustice on popular Internet forums or blogs. The second is the habitual way that certain local governments, faced with suspicion or criticism, use the crime of defamation as a weapon of public power to attack private rights and try to restrict people’s expression on the Internet.

  » Read more
  • July 18, 2009 9:41 PM

• Joshua Rosenzweig: China’s Battle Over the Right to Criticize

  

  In the Far Eastern Economic Review, Joshua Rosenzweig of the Duihua Foundation writes about the slew of recent defamation cases against people who criticize local officials:

  In recent weeks, China has been abuzz with talk about protecting the rights of citizens to criticize the government. To date, the Chinese media has given extensive coverage to three separate cases involving the use of criminal-defamation charges to silence individuals who aired criticisms of alleged local government misconduct on the Internet. These press reports have generated considerable public sympathy for the victims of these abuses of power and may represent an initial push toward reforms that would create space for some—but likely not all—those who dare to voice opinions critical of the Chinese government.

  [...] Though exposure of three separate criminal-defamation cases over the course of two weeks is certainly remarkable, it would be an oversimplification to blame a new, concerted effort to impose new restrictions on free speech in China. But the increased use of both civil- and criminal-defamation litigation to fight back against criticism in recent years is reflective of changes that have taken place in China over the past decade. Chinese state control of the media has long ensured that officials and institutions are rarely subjected to public criticism. But today’s media environment features a increasingly commercialized press with more editorial freedom and, especially, an expansive Internet that, while routinely censored, nevertheless provides an unprecedented platform for individuals to express opinions on a range of subjects. And for local officials, online criticism like that posted by Wang Shuai, Wu Baoquan or Deng Yonggu does not simply embarrass; if it leads to an investigation from above, it could mean the loss of a job.

  » Read more
  • May 6, 2009 6:25 PM

• Recent Defamation Cases and Abuse of Local Power

  

  In a number of recent cases, local officials have brought defamation or libel charges against citizens who criticized them. In discussing these cases on their blogs and in their writing, Chinese journalists and academics have brought up broader issues of freedom of information and local power. China Media Project translates a blog post by People’s University Professor Zhang Ming about the recent cases:

  After reading about Henan’s Wang Shuai (王帅) case and Inner Mongolia’s Wu Baoquan (吴保全) case (both were accused of crimes after criticizing the government), my initial response was that these were classic cases of wenziyu (文字狱), [or being jailed for one’s words]. But when I thought more carefully about it, these cases are a bit different from ancient cases of wenziyu [in China]. Ancient cases of wenziyu were generally initiated on the behalf of rulers at the highest level [such as the emperor], and the goal was to strive for uniformity of thought and opinion. Clearly, those who pursued and persecuted Wang Shuai and Wu Baoquan did not have such lofty priorities. What they wanted, first and foremost, was to ensure that information did not leak out, and secondly, that the dignity of the [local] ruler was preserved . . . We have every indication that this first priority was the most pressing of all.

  We must admit that some of our local officials have made progress, and if the people, having had a bit too much to drink, criticize those who govern them, most will be spared revenge so long as they don’t publicly shake a finger at a leader’s nose. And there are even those [leaders] who might hear [the insults] but pretend not to. But when [local officials] mobilize police strength to conduct a manhunt for Wang Shuai over vast distances, when they direct the courts to sentence Wang Baoquan, answering his subsequent legal appeal by upping the severity of his sentence, when they march to war, when they break a butterfly on the wheel — this, certainly, is about expending every possible effort in the shortest space of time to keep a lid on information. It is about silencing the crowd with a single act of violence, so that they think twice before following the example.

  The Siweiluozi blog has been following these cases as well. Most recently, the blog posted a translation of a piece by writer Ran Yunfei titled “The Shameless, Hidden Facts of the Deng Yonggu Case,” about the case brought against a Sichuan forestry bureau worker who alleged misconduct in a reforestation project:

  For making a signed accusation of corruption in the reforestation work being done in Gaosheng Township, Deng Yonggu has been falsely accused by the Pengxi County Procuratorate of defamation. Considering the principle under which there should be no crime if no one brings suit, for the public prosecutor to bring suit in this case is, from one perspective, a colossal joke. Even if one’s criticisms of the government turned out not to be factual, it should never constitute defamation—this is basic common sense. If the officials who were criticized feel that they were libeled, why shouldn’t they bring suit themselves and, at the same time, allow neutral investigators to examine whether what Deng Yonggu alleged is true? By not making the truth public and not discussing the truth of what Deng Yonggu alleged, prosecutors have taken it upon themselves to exonerate and illegally shield these few officials tagged as “scum.”

  » Read more
  • April 30, 2009 9:49 AM

• Taiwan’s Ex-President Rejects Defamation Charges

  

  From AFP:

  Taiwan’s former president Chen Shui-bian on Monday insisted he was not guilty of defamation claims brought against him, as opponents of the pro-independence leader protested outside the courthouse.

  Chen, who retired in May after eight years in power, has been sued by five retired military officers for saying they had taken 20 million US dollars in kickbacks in connection with a controversial deal to buy frigates from France.

  The former president, a lawyer by training, is representing himself in the suit, which marks the first time a former leader has been subpoenaed as a defendant in a legal case.

  Read also Ex-President Chen kicked in the rear at his first court appearance from The China Post.

  » Read more
  • July 21, 2008 7:46 PM

• China’s Feudal County Cadres: “Defamed” and Dangerous – David Bandurski

  

  On China Media Project, David Bandurski writes about how local county officials use their unrestrained power to bring “defamation” claims against their critics:

  While counties are beyond the gravitational pull of the center in Beijing, and sufficiently far from provincial centers of power, their leaders have comprehensive sets of public tools at their disposal — the police, courts, prosecutors.

  Counties are therefore the most comprehensive manifestation of government power to interface directly with ordinary citizens. And as rights consciousness grows among ordinary Chinese, and social problems loom, this becomes a national recipe for personal disaster like that which faced Liaoning businesswoman Zhao Junping.

  …These tensions are clearly visible in the surge of “defamation” cases that have emerged recently from county governments across China. And these cases are just the tip of the iceberg, freak instances where information about local wrongdoing trickled up and out to national media. [Full text]

  Read also ESWN’s translation of a Southern Metropolis Daily article and “Petty officials with grand delusions” from Asia Times, about the recent defamation case by Liaoning officials against journalist Zhu Wenna.

  » Read more
  • January 16, 2008 10:30 AM

• Three cadres from Jishan, Shanxi punished for reporting questionable activities by local county secretary – Southern Metropolis Daily

  

  The Peering into the Interior blog has translated an article from Southern Metropolis Daily (original Chinese here) “which details how the government went about prosecuting with vigilance three mid-level party cadres who accused the local secretary of “losing the will of the people” after selling land for real estate development when it was was intended to be used for building parks or other forms of “symbolic architecture”:

  On March of 2006, Shanxi Jishan county People’s Legal Working Committee (‰∫∫§ßÊ≥ïÂ∑•Âßî) Director Êù®Á߶Áéâ Yang Qinyu while talking with ÂçóÂõûËç£ Nan Huirong and ËñõÂøóÊï¨ Xue Zhijing at the country party committee’s office brought up the incident regarding some tracts of land that had been recently sold. Originally, the government had decided to build “Symbolic buildings” (ʆáÂøóÊÄߪ∫Á≠ë) such as parks and statues, but it was suddenly sold to someone to be used for real estate development. The three thought that the government had made unpredictable changes in policy. After mentioning more of the counties problems they concluded that the local party secretary ÊùéÊ∂¶Â±± Li Runshan had lost the will of the people. The three of them then decided to put these problems down in writing. [Full text]

  » Read more
  • April 11, 2007 10:05 AM

• Journalist in Landmark Defamation Court Case – Raymond Li

  

  Here is the second case reported this week of legal action taken by a journalist in China against a government official or agency. From the South China Morning Post, via Asia Media:

  A senior Beijing-based journalist has taken the Qitaihe municipal government Office of Law and Order and its director, Liu Mingying, to court in what is believed to be the first defamation case against a local government agency on the mainland.

  Sheng Xueyou, 42, was a freelance reporter at the time he wrote a series of stories for the Beijing-based West Times in August regarding a coalmine ownership dispute in Qitaihe, Heilongjiang province, and the ensuing ruling by a local arbitration committee that Mr Liu was heading.

  In his news reports, Sheng accused the arbitration committee and Mr Liu of handing down the same rulings on several occasions in favour of the arbitration applicants in a complicated transfer of coalmine ownership. [Full text]

  
  
  - See also “Court rejects writer’s bid to overturn ban on prison book’s reprint” about journalist Dai Huang’s lawsuit against the General Administration of Press and Publication.

  » Read more
  • March 22, 2007 9:00 AM

• The Unpublished FoxConn Story – ESWN

  

  From ESWN blog:

  The following is a translation of a blog post by Southern Weekend reporter Fu Jianfeng (ÂÇÖÂâëÈîã). This is about the FoxConn-versus-China Business News case that Fu and his colleagues were working on, but never go to publish it after a ban was issued on further coverage. So this is yet another case in which an unpublishable case found itself on the Internet instead, with all sorts of delicious details that could not have been published either. This is a perfect illustration of how the Internet has transformed China …

  [in translation] The reason why I did not publish these notes before was that I did not want to engage in futile debates. Instead, I am looking for calm, deep and introspective thoughts. To a certain degree, this essay is still quite acerbic. I do not mind being criticized over this, because I think it is more important to have an honest debate.

  Let me tell a story first. The story occurred on the day when FoxConn reduced its requested damage award amount from 30 million RMB to 1 RMB — August 30.[Full Text]

  » Read more
  • September 25, 2006 7:54 PM

• Taiwan Firm Drops China iPod Libel Case – Reuters

  

  From Reuters via the New York Times:

  A Taiwanese firm has dropped its libel claim against two Shanghai journalists and their newspaper for saying that workers at a plant manufacturing iPods were mistreated, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

  Shenzhen-based Foxconn, which manufactures iPods for Apple Inc. , and the China Business News had apologized to each other for the trouble caused by the lawsuit, Xinhua said.

  In a joint statement the two sides also agreed to cooperate to protect workers’ rights, the news agency added. [Full Text]

  See also Xinhua’s Shenzhen court ruling on Foxconn case “absurd” and more there; and Lian Yue’s No More Foxconn: Chinese Propaganda Department and AP’s In iPod Labor Case, Damages Claim Is Lowered

  » Read more
  • September 3, 2006 9:17 PM

• China paper vows to support staff in defamation case – Reuters

  

  From Reuters:

  A Chinese financial newspaper has said it will support two of its journalists being sued for defamation over a news report that alleged mistreatment of workers at a China plant manufacturing iPod music players.

  The case was brought by manufacturer Foxconn, a Shenzhen-based unit of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (2317.TW: Quote, Profile, Research), against reporter Wang You and editor Weng Bao, of the Shanghai-based daily the China Business News. [Full text]

  UPDATE: Wang You and Weng Bao have started their blogs. See this China Daily report. See also “Shenzhen court ruling on Foxconn case “absurd”: experts” from People’s Daily, and “Western Media Begins FoxConn Coverage” from ESWN. Click here to see the report from China Business News (in Chinese)

  » Read more
  • August 29, 2006 9:43 AM

• Professor wins suit against flagship blog site – Xinhua

  

  From Xinhua, via China Daily:

  A Chinese university professor has successfully sued one of the country’s largest blog website, Blogcn.com, after it carried defamatory remarks on a blog written by one of his students.

  The Gulou District People’s Court in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province on Wednesday ordered Blogcn to pay 1,000 yuan (US$125) to Chen Tangfa, associate professor of the School of Journalism at Nanjing University. The court also ordered Blogcn to post a formal apology on its website for 10 days.

  A year ago last June the university teacher found slanderous and defamatory insults directed at him in a blog diary of a former student that was hosted by the website Blogcn.com.

  » Read more
  • August 4, 2006 6:24 AM

• Activist in defamation appeal – Jane Cai

  

  From the South China Morning Post, via Asia Media:

  The head of a leading anti-Japanese organisation has objected to a Beijing court ruling that he defamed the reputation of a short message provider company that helped him solicit donations.

  Activist Lu Yunfei said he would appeal against the ruling made by Chaoyang District People’s Court last week.

  In January last year, Mr Lu, who runs the Patriotic Alliance website, initiated a donation campaign for those Chinese injured by chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province.

  » Read more
  • December 19, 2005 3:32 PM

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