The High Court today dismissed a case in which two people allegedly paid others to post criticism of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office’s Osaka branch over its handling of evacuations from Japan following a 2018 typhoon.
This came after the Constitutional Court last year ruled that insulting public officials is punishable under the Constitution, while defaming a public office is not, sending the case back to the High Court for a retrial.
The case, dubbed the “Kansai Airport incident,” involved Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如), who was indicted over comments online that accused the office of failing to offer timely help to Taiwanese in Japan during Typhoon Jebi, which made landfall in Japan on Sept. 4, 2018.
Photo: Wen Yu-te, Taipei Times
Yang allegedly instructed Tsai Fu-ming (蔡福明) and others to generate discussion on PTT about the event.
Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), who was director-general of the office at the time, committed suicide at his residence eight days later.
In the first trial, Yang and Tsai were each sentenced to six months in jail, commutable to a fine of NT$180,000, for contravening Article 140 of the Criminal Code.
Article 140 stipulates a prison sentence of up to one year or a fine of up to NT$100,000 for “insult[ing] a public official during the discharge of his legal duties or publicly mak[ing] insults about his discharge of such legal duties.”
Yang and Tsai appealed to the High Court, which sentenced them each to five months in jail, commutable to a fine of NT$150,000.
The former ruling sentenced Yang and Tsai for defaming a public office, while the second ruling found them guilty of defaming a public official during the discharge of their duties.
Yang then sought a constitutional interpretation, saying that Article 140 contravenes constitutionally guaranteed free speech.
The Constitutional Court said that Article 140 has two parts, one referring to “slandering or defaming a public official” and one to “slandering or defaming a public office,” and ruled that the first part is punishable under the law while the second part is not.
The High Court then said that after the interpretation, punishments for “slandering or defaming a public official” have “lost their effectiveness.”
It therefore revoked its original ruling, saying the two offenses are no longer punishable.
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