The Taipei District Court (
However, Judge Lai Yung-hua's (
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. The magazine said Lu spread the rumor in order to unseat Chen.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lu filed a civil suit on Dec. 21, 2000, demanding a formal apology from the magazine, saying the story had injured her reputation.
In addition to Yang, the lawsuit named as defendants The Journalist president Wang Chien-chuang (王健壯), executive president Jan Hung-chi (詹宏志), publisher Wang Hsing-ching (王杏慶) and reporters Yang Shu-mei (楊舒媚), Wu Yan-ling (吳燕玲) and Tao Ling-yu (陶令瑜).
In his verdict, Judge Lai acknowledged that Yang had lied about Lu calling him and telling him about the alleged affair and that he had also lied about having witnesses to back up the magazine's story.
However, Lai said the magazine was protected by the press freedom guaranteed by the Council of Grand Justices' constitutional Interpretation Number 509, which allows the press to propose proper questions about any suspicious fact or person. Therefore, he ruled that Yang was not guilty of libel.
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, Yang told the judge that Chen Shih-ning (
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 innocent because the judge ruled they were only following orders in writing stories assigned to them by Yang.
However, Lai ruled that the story about Lu had damaged her reputation -- therefore, according to Article 188-1 of the Civil Code, Yang must "clarify and admit" his mistake. Lai ordered Yang to publish a clarification on the front pages of Taiwan's major newspapers as well as broadcast it on the radio and TV for three days.
"The case was about human dignity and press freedom," said Lai. "The court understood the defendants' jobs as media workers but we also considered Lu's reputation's as being damaged."
Lu claimed victory yesterday.
"The truth is the truth," Lu said. "No matter how Wang tried to argue and explain, he couldn't beat the truth."
She added that she appreciated the president's trust in her over this case.
Wang Chien-chuang said The Journalist actually won the suit.
"Why were those charges against the rest of us dropped?" said Wang. "That means we were always telling the truth. We will discuss an appeal on Yang's behalf with our lawyers."
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS