Blog about star costs 'Big Mouth' 100,000 yuan fine

Jin Qiaoqiao

An outspoken blogger has been ordered to pay 100,000 yuan to an actress after he claimed online she had an affair with one of China's electronics retail tycoons.

Beijing No 2 Intermediate Court made the libel ruling on Wednesday against Song Zude and a co-defendant, Liu Xinda, who was also ordered to pay 100,000 yuan.

As one of the most controversial characters on the Internet, Song was well known for publishing sharp words about celebrities. Numerous stars have been the subject of his public musings and he has earned the nickname "Big Mouth Song".

Last year, actress Jin Qiaoqiao began legal action against Song and his cousin, Liu, for fabricating online rumors about her private life.

Song's personal blogs entitled "Huang Guangyu was buried in Jin Qiaoqiao's wake" and "Jin Qiaoqiao's so-called trivial matters" were said to have dirtied Jin's reputation.

Huang Guangyu, once the richest person in China with a fortune of billions of dollars, was the former chairman of the electronics retail chain GOME.

He is currently accused of illegal business operations, insider trading and illegal leakage of public company information.

Song said in his blog that Huang had given a large amount of money to Jin, which accounted for most of her alleged fortune of 7 million yuan. Song even claimed in his blog that Jin had two abortions.

In the suit, Jin demanded 1 million yuan in compensation from Song.

During Song's first trial in December, his lawyer said the two articles were actually written by Liu Xinda. Liu then insisted they were fictional literary works and said the name "Jin Qiaoqiao" in his writing was an invented character.

Jin subsequently added Liu as a defendant in her lawsuit.

Chaoyang district court made a judgment on Dec 18, saying Liu had damaged Jin's reputation. The court also said Song's behavior in carrying the article on his blog without checking the facts and revising it was wrong.

Liu and Song were ordered to delete the two articles and apologize to Jin in the front pages of the blogs Sina, Sohu and 163 during seven consecutive days from the day of the verdict.

In addition, Liu and Song were both told to pay a fine of 100,000 yuan for Jin's mental distress.

At the end of the first trial, they refused to accept the judgment and appealed to a higher court.

On Wednesday, the appeal court upheld the previous ruling.

"As an actress, I'm not trying to become popular by being at the center of speculation. I'm just trying to clear up misunderstandings as well as assaults on me," said Jin on her blog on Thursday.

"Meanwhile, I hope more actors will pick up the weapon of the law to protect their dignity."