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.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, land rights, libel, Wu Baoquan
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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.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, Hu Yong, netizens
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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.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, local power, Wang Shuai, Wu Baoquan
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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.”

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, local power, Ran Yunfei, Wang Shuai, Wu Baoquan
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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.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Shui-bian, defamation, Taiwan law
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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.

© Kate Zhao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, local power
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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]

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, land rights, Shanxi, whistle-blower
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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.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, journalists, lawsuits
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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]

© Mo Ming for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, Foxconn, iPod
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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

© Michael Zhao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2006. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: defamation, Foxconn, iPod, labor rights
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