The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the Taiwan High Court's verdict on Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) libel lawsuit against The Journalist magazine. The weekly refused to offer an apology as per the court's orders and vowed to file for a second review of the case, as well as request a constitutional interpretation.
According to the ruling in December, the magazine needs to buy half-page ads on the front pages of four major Chinese-language newspapers to publish a clarification and apology.
The Supreme Court ruling came after the court heard an unprecedented debate on the case on Tuesday.
At issue was the grand justices' constitutional interpretation of Article 509, which states "the press is entitled to raise appropriate questions about any suspicious fact or person." However, this article applies only to criminal cases.
Citing the magazine's failure to verify the information, the Supreme Court overruled the magazine's appeal and upheld the High Court's decision.
"The key to the magazine's loss in the case is that it had failed to provide concrete evidence to prove its allegation," said Lee Jin-feng (
Although the court agreed that the media is entitled to freedom of the press, Lee said that the media should do their utmost to verify information and report with as few mistakes as humanly possible.
Calling the verdict "disappointing," the magazine's president, Wang Chien-chuang (
"The ruling is not only illegal, but also encroaches on the Constitution," Wang said. "In addition to requesting a second review of the case, we'll request a constitutional interpretation of Article 509 and 11 from the Council of Grand Justices."
Huang Chuang-shia (
"We're not fighting for ourselves, we're fighting for the nation's media industry as a whole," he said.
Lu's attorneys, on the other hand, lauded the Supreme Court's decision, saying the case had set a precedent for future similar cases.
"The moral of this case is that the media should pay the price for not doing their job right and failing to double-check the facts," said Yu Mei-nu (
The Vice President's Office yesterday also issued a press release, calling on the public to pressure the magazine to obey the court ruling and carry out its legal obligations as soon as possible.
The statement also outlined what it viewed as the three lessons of the case. The first dealt with the freedom of the press and the media's obligations. While the press enjoys freedom of speech, the statement said, it should fulfill its social obligations.
The second was about journalistic ethics, where the statement said that the duty of the media is to reports facts not to fabricate.
Finally, the statement said the media should respect the rule of law and safeguard social order and national interest.
Lu sued the magazine for publishing a story in November 2000 that claimed she had called its editor-in-chief to spread a rumor that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was having an affair with one of his female subordinates, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).
The magazine alleged that Lu spread the rumor in order to unseat Chen. Lu filed a civil suit against seven people at the magazine on Dec. 21, 2000, demanding a formal apology from the magazine, saying the story had damaged her reputation.
On April 10, 2002, the Taipei District Court found the defendants not guilty of criminal libel, basing its decision on Article 509, although the court ruled that the story had damaged Lu's reputation.
The court also ordered the seven defendants to "clarify and admit" their mistake and publish a statement to that effect on the front pages of the nation's 32 newspapers as well as broadcasting it on radio and TV for three days.
On Dec. 13, 2002, the High Court upheld the verdict on appeal but reduced the punishment to run one-day front-page advertisements in four major Chinese-language newspapers. The court also declined Lu's request that the defendants broadcast a clarification on radio and TV for three days.
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