Wed, Oct 06, 2004 page2

• Court tells magazine to apologize to Lu

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Taiwan High Court yesterday insisted that The Journalist magazine must apologize to Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) for a story it published in November 2000.

  The court dismissed The Journalist's appeal against an earlier ruling in Lu's civil lawsuit against it, although the magazine will be allowed to file a final appeal to the Supreme Court.

  "Basically, the Journalist did not submit any new evidence to persuade the court that there was a reason to overturn the previous verdict. So we decided to uphold the previous court decision and rule against the magazine," said Hsu Cheng-shun (許正順), yesterday's presiding judge at the Taiwan High Court's civil department in Taipei.

  "If necessary, the defendants are allowed to file another appeal, which will be final, within 20 days after they receive my verdict," Hsu said.

  Neither Lu nor the defendants attended the delivery of yesterday's verdict.

  Wellington Koo (顧立雄), Lu's lawyer, said that the result did not surprise him at all.

  "They [the defendants] did not submit any surprising or new evidence during previous hearings, so they did not persuade judges to overturn the result," Koo said.

  Hsu yesterday ruled that the defendants, seven employees of The Journalist, have to run one-day front-page advertisements in four major Chinese-language newspapers to make up for the damage done to Lu's reputation.

  Lu sued the magazine over a story 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 then 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 her suit on Dec. 21, 2000, demanding a formal apology from the magazine.

  On April 10, 2002, the Taipei District Court found the defendants not guilty of criminal libel. However, judges ruled that the story had damaged Lu's reputation, which is a civil offence, and ordered the seven defendants to "clarify and admit" their mistake by publishing 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.

  The cost of such clarifications has been estimated at NT$180 million.

  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 dismissed Lu's request that the defendants broadcast a clarification on radio and TV for three days, which would cost about NT$3.86 million.

  On April 29 this year, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict concerning criminal libel, and the defendants decided to file a second appeal against Lu's civil claim.

  The magazine yesterday said that it would not make any decision about whether to file its final appeal to the Supreme Court until it has received Hsu's verdict.

  The defendants are the magazine's president Wang Chien-chuang (王健壯), editor-in-chief Yang Chao (楊照), 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).
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