June 27th, 2011
A Taiwanese blogger, identified only as Liu, was
sentenced to 30 days in detention and ordered to pay NT$200,000 (about £11,000) for allegedly writing a defamatory review about a local restaurant. She blogged that the dish she had ordered was too salty and that there were cockroaches on the restaurant premises. The restaurant refuted these claims, sued, and won their claim. In Taiwan, defamation is a criminal act.
June 3rd, 2011
The United Nations special rapporteur for free expression Frank La Rue has called for the abolition of criminal defamation laws. Guatemalan lawyer La Rue also condemned the use of “national security” reasons to curb free expression:
In a
report released today, LaRue comments:
The Special Rapporteur reiterates the call to all States to decriminalize defamation. Additionally, he underscores that protection of national security or countering terrorism cannot be used to justify restricting the right to expression unless it can be demonstrated that: (a) the expression is intended to incite imminent violence; (b) it is likely to incite such violence; and (c) there is a direct and immediate connection between the expression and the likelihood or occurrence of such violence.
Criminal defamation cases are frequently brought to silence criticism of authorities. Recent examples include actions brought against journalist
Art Troitsky in Russia and anti death penalty campaigner
Alan Shadrake in Singapore.
May 17th, 2011
Russian rock journalist Art Troitsky’s caustic tongue has landed him in court in four separate libel cases. Emily Butselaar reports
(more…)
April 20th, 2011
A local city councillor in the
Philippines has brought two criminal defamation charges against a radio journalist. Alberto Loyola
, who works for Radio DxRJ, was
arrested on 18 April and has since been released on bail. Chonilo Ruiz brought the charges after Loyola accused him of lying about the city budget. If convicted Loyola could face up to six years in jail.
