TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – In a potential coup for the #MeToo movement in China, a court ruled that two former journalists defamed a third journalist by publishing a report accusing him of sexual misconduct.
A court in the eastern city of Hangzhou ruled on Tuesday that the evidence provided by Zou Sicong and He Qian against prominent journalist Deng Fei “was not enough to allow anyone to firmly believe, without any hesitation, that what was described really happened. . ”
The court ordered He and Zou to pay 11,712 yuan ($ 1,813) in damages. They plan to appeal the decision.
The lawsuit was based on an article written by He that Zou published online in 2018, in which he claimed that Deng lured her to a hotel room in 2009 to discuss story ideas, then stripped off her clothes and tried to kiss and touch her. over there.
He said that, at the time, she was a 21-year-old intern at a news magazine where Deng was the chief reporter.
The article came amid a wave of denunciations as young women across China spread stories of sexual assault and misconduct as part of the global #MeToo movement.
However, the movement found it difficult to gain momentum in China, where politics, the arts and the business world remain predominantly male-dominated. Accusations made publicly and anonymously against a few dozen men in sectors ranging from the media to the academy have generated a backlash, and since 2018, at least six men have filed defamation lawsuits against their accusers or people who helped publicize the accusations.
Deng denied the accusation, writing in his microblog Wechat that “he had never done anything so stupid or so bad”. He petitioned to keep the details of the case out of the public record to protect the privacy of third parties who might be mentioned.
“I didn’t even have a chance to find the relevant evidence to prove my innocence, and furthermore, as 10 years have passed, I don’t even remember that person who said he only saw me once,” wrote Deng.
Throughout the process, Zou and He said they faced a greater burden of proof under Chinese law. Although China allowed sexual misconduct as the basis for lawsuits in 2019, the definition of such harassment remains unclear and very few cases are closed. Many have been sued in court as labor disputes or under laws to protect public reputation.
Tuesday’s decision may discourage others from filing reports of sexual misconduct in the future, the defendants said.
“This is the same as telling someone who has been humiliated, who has been hurt, that if you don’t have audio recordings or videos of the event, you better hurry up and shut up,” said Zou and Him’s lawyer, Xu Kai. in a statement. “The court imposed the entire burden of proof on Zou Sicong and He Qian.”
“If at that time we had the surveillance footage and the police report and then in court I told Deng Fei that, then we should be in his position as prosecutors,” said Zou. “It will definitely have a scary effect.”
He said the trial was a setback, but she still has hope for the movement.
“I want to know how far we can go with the existing legal system,” she said.
Deng did not respond to messages left on his social media accounts.
Zhou Xiaoxuan, the face of one of China’s most notorious #MeToo cases, said he did not see the decision as a defeat. “It was very courageous for He Qian to speak about this with his real name. She did it for the rights of other women. “
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This story corrects that the court’s decision involved a civil case, not a criminal conviction.