/ 24 June 2011

Blogger fined $7 000 for restaurant review

A Taiwanese woman was ordered to compensate a noodle shop Tw$200 000 ($7 000) for defamation after criticising the store as unclean and its food as “really bad” on her blog, a court said Friday.

Liu Ying-hui escaped a 30-day jail term, with the high court deciding to grant her a two-year suspended sentence after she agreed to compensate the shop, according to the verdict released by the court.

Liu was convicted of defaming the shop in February for commenting on her blog in 2009 that its food was “really bad … too salty” while the owner was a “bully” and the stop was “unclean with cockroaches”, the verdict said.

A district court in central Taiwan ruled that her remarks “crossed the boundary of an appropriate review” since she had failed to prove her allegations.

It was the latest of a number of controversial rulings involving Internet commentaries, after a teacher was ordered to pay her dentist Tw$1,5-million for calling him a “rat’s dropping” in March, according to local media. – AFP