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EDITORIAL: Lawsuits,
distortions and infamy
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has filed a civil lawsuit against the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) and its spokesperson, Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑), claiming
damages in connection with rumors that Ma had met secretly with a well-known
bookmaker. Since DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is her party’s legal
representative, Ma is basically suing his main rival in January’s presidential
election.
In filing the NT$2 million (US$66,000) lawsuit, Ma has ignored the main party in
the affair — Next Magazine, which reported the alleged meeting — choosing
instead to sue the DPP for repeating the story. While the lawsuit was clearly a
political decision, Ma said that, as president, it would be inappropriate for
him to sue a media outlet.
A president or vice president suing the media loses, regardless of the outcome.
If Ma were to win the lawsuit, he would be accused of interfering with the
judiciary, suppressing the media and indirectly threatening the news media.
Then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) won a defamation suit against the
Journalist (新新聞) magazine in 2004, but it was a tough victory that left Lu
bruised and battered. If Ma lost a suit against a media outlet, he would lose
face and maybe even his political career, and that is too much of a risk.
Ma has filed a civil lawsuit, rather than a criminal one. The main reason for
this was Constitutional Interpretation No. 509, which states that if the accused
fails to demonstrate that a defamatory statement is true, they must be found not
guilty if they can prove that there are reasonable grounds to believe that it is
true. The DPP got its information from Next Magazine, and that would make it
very difficult to win a criminal lawsuit against the DPP for defamation.
Had Ma insisted on a criminal lawsuit, the case could have been quickly rejected
and he would basically have shot himself in the foot, hobbling his re-election
bid. By filing a civil lawsuit, he stands a much greater chance of the court
accepting it, and that could constrain the DPP’s attacks over the alleged
meeting. It also leaves him with the option of withdrawing the lawsuit if he
wants.
During election campaigns, it is common to see rivals, candidates or parties
suing each other. However, although Ma claims that this is a private lawsuit,
filed in his own name, Ma the private citizen cannot be disentangled from Ma,
the president. That the accuser and defendant are election rivals simply raises
the stakes. This means the legal proceedings will play out in the public sphere
and will be the target of public commentary. It is impossible for the public to
view this lawsuit as a purely private affair.
That the DPP has been sued by the president for quoting from a media report to
criticize him should rightly send chills through everyone. It is an attack on
freedom of expression, and a bad development for Taiwan’s democracy.
Ma has fallen victim to rumor-mongering just as DPP vice presidential candidate
Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) did last month, when he filed a lawsuit following
accusations that a Taitung County house he owned was illegal. The DPP complained
that Ma, as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman and presidential candidate,
did nothing to restrain his party members from defaming Su.
If distorting facts to attack opponents is part and parcel of Taiwan’s twisted
political culture, then both the pan-blue and pan-green camps have now tasted
the same bitter medicine. As aspirants register their candidacies, they should
remember not to do unto others what they don’t want to experience themselves.
It’s not too late to try positive campaigning.
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