From China Daily (link):
Xiaoli, an orphan whose parents died of AIDS, has become the focus of the first lawsuit in China that accuses a newspaper of invading AIDS orphans’ privacy.
The first hearing at Beijing’s Chaoyang District Court was on April 25, and the second is scheduled for later this month, after which the court will deliberate and issue its ruling.
The plaintiff is Jin Wei, a professor at the Central Party School, and the defendant is Beijing-based China Times newspaper.
Jin filed the lawsuit on March 1 on behalf of Xiaoli, 19, after the paper used the full names of Xiaoli and her young brother, Xiaochuang, 15, along with their photos in a feature story published on December 2, 2005. (Xiaoli and Xiaochuang are not their real names.)
“This article, even with its good intentions, may harm the lives of the two children, who have suffered from prejudice and misery,” Jin told China Daily.
While asking the court to throw out the case, Zhou Yong of Beijing Tianping Law Firm, the defendant’s lawyer, argued at the hearing that the newspaper’s coverage was to arouse public sympathy for Xiaoli and had not caused her any harm.
