The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld the verdict of a lower court that The Journalist magazine did not libel Vice President Annette Lu (
But it ordered the publication and five of its personnel to bear the costs of publishing a correction of a report withdrawing the allegation.
In addition to the magazine itself and the editor-in-chief, Yang Chao (
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Judge Chang Tsung-chuan (
"All of the defendants attended the editorial meeting at which it was decided to publish the story so we believe that they should share the responsibility," said Tsai Kuo-tsai (
The first verdict dismissed Lu's libel charges on the grounds that newspapers were entitled to pose legitimate questions about the conduct of public officials.
But it, nevertheless, ruled that Yang must personally bear the cost of the publication of corrections on the front pages of Taiwan's 32 newspapers and broadcast on major radio and TV stations for three consecutive days, which would cost about NT$180 million.
"We believed that Lu's wish to clear her name can be done by publishing the clarification on four major Chinese-language newspapers instead of all local newspapers," Tsai said. "Plus, according to our estimate, it would take Yang about 2.5 hours to read through the 15,000-word clarification, written by Lu's lawyer, on radio or TV which could be difficult for radio and TV production. So, we dropped the radio and TV part."
Yesterday's verdict was on Yang's appeal against the costs imposed on him as a result of the civil case filed by Lu on Dec. 21, 2000, saying a story published by the magazine had injured her reputation. In addition, Lu's charges of criminal libel against the magazine and seven of its employees were dropped during the first trial.
The dispute between The Journalist and Lu erupted in November 2000 when the magazine published a story accusing Lu of spreading a rumor that Chen was having an affair with one of his female aides, Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴). The magazine said Lu spread the rumor in order to unseat Chen.
During the first trial, the magazine's executive president, Jan Hung-chi (
In response to the second verdict, the vice president said that she had been obliged to file the suit.
"I just needed to let the public know the truth. We also hoped that the media could learn a lesson from the case," Lu said. "This is belated justice."
Wang Chien-chuang held a press conference immediately and said that they would appeal again.
"We are very disappointed and will definitely appeal," he said.
According to the first verdict by Taipei Judge Lai Yung-hua (
Yang testified that Lu had called him on Nov. 13, 2000, and said that the president was having an affair. Yang said he had then told reporters Yang Shu-mei, Wu and Tao about the phone call and directed them to write about it.
In pre-trial hearings at the Taipei District Court (
However, Tseng testified that he had heard about a rumored affair, but not from Lu. Chen testified that he had never claimed to be able to confirm anything.
As for the other defendants, Lai ruled Wang Chien-chuang was not guilty because he was only in charge of administrative duties and had nothing to do with the magazine's stories.
Jan was found not guilty because his title was simply an honorary one and he was not really working for the magazine.
Wang Hsing-ching was found not guilty because his duties did not include editing the stories about Lu.
The three reporters were found not guilty because the judge ruled they were only following orders in writing stories assigned to them by Yang.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant