The Taiwan High Court yesterday ordered political commentator Clara Chou (周玉蔻) to pay former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) NT$1.8 million (US$60,943) for damaging his reputation, overturning the Taipei District Court’s original ruling.
Chou in 2014 publicly accused Ma of taking NT$200 million in illegal political donations from then-Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co chairman Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and members of his family during the 2012 presidential election campaign.
At the time, Wei was embroiled in a tainted cooking oil scandal involving his company. He is currently serving a prison sentence for tampering with product labels.
After Chou made the allegation on a political talk show, Ma charged her with aggravated libel and demanded at court that she retract her statement and pay NT$10 million for defamation.
Early last year, the Taipei District Court dismissed both the criminal and civil portions of Ma’s lawsuit.
However, the High Court in April last year overturned the criminal portion of the verdict, ordering Chou to serve a 50-day prison sentence commutable to a fine. The verdict was final and not subject to appeal.
Yesterday, the High Court overturned the original decision regarding the civil portion of Ma’s lawsuit.
The allegation was not corroborated by fact, the High Court ruled, adding that Chou failed to exercise journalistic due diligence.
Chou told the court she sought corroboration of her claims from six people, three of whom denied that Chou had done so, while two said they based their allegations on hearsay and one said it was based on speculation.
The court said Chou should have conducted more research to verify the allegation prior to publicizing it and found her to have caused Ma distress.
Chou was also ordered to retract and apologize with advertisements in Chinese-language newspapers the United Daily News, the China Times, the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) and the Apple Daily.
Both Chou and Ma could appeal the verdict, the court said.
“I am disappointed by the court’s decision and I will appeal,” Chou said on Facebook, adding that she had performed due diligence in investigating the allegation prior to going public.
Ma’s spokesman Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said that Ma appreciated the verdict and was grateful to the judges.
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