An unidentified netizen is suing Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for libel for calling protesters against pension reform “bastards.”
The netizen, a campaigner opposed to pension reform, posted a screenshot on the Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s biggest online bulletin board, showing an e-mail from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office saying it had received and would process the netizen’s criminal complaint of libel against the mayor.
Ko first made the comments at a news conference after protesters on Saturday blocked foreign athletes from entering the Taipei Municipal Stadium for the Taipei Summer Universiade’s opening ceremony.
Photo: CNA
“This is an important national event. You people coming over here to make trouble are bastards,” Ko said at the news conference.
Later, a woman surnamed Yang (楊) slammed Ko on Facebook, demanding that the mayor “tell all Taipei residents who the bastard is.”
“You and those anti-pension reform groups,” Ko replied.
The comment received more than 480,000 likes before Yang deleted it.
It is not clear whether Taipei prosecutors would indict the mayor, lawyer Chen Chun-hsiang (陳俊翔) told the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
Article 309 of the Criminal Code defines libel as an offense that cannot be prosecuted without a complaint from the victim, Chen said.
Members of the public are not entitled to make complaints on behalf of another, Chen said.
When a complaint is filed by someone other than the victim, it is automatically dropped after six months, he said.
Assuming Yang is to press the issue, a prosecutor will have to seek a balance between the protection of a person’s reputation extended by the law and the right to free speech, he said.
A prosecutor may decide that Ko’s language at the press conference was directed at the actions of the protesters, which falls under the protected category of “fair comment on a fact subject to public criticism,” Chen said.
However, a statement on social media accusing people of being bastards could be construed as committing libel in some circumstances, he said.
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