China court orders compensation in Internet harassment case
Thu, Dec 18, 2008
AFP
BEIJING, Dec 18, 2008 (AFP) - A man hounded by Internet surfers has successfully sued Chinese websites for posting the blog of his wife after she committed suicide over his infidelity, state media said Thursday
A Beijing court ordered Daqi.com and a woman who set up her own web page to pay Wang Fei a total of 8,000 yuan (1,200 dollars) in damages for posting and circulating information related to the blog, Xinhua news agency said.
Wang's wife, Jiang Yan, committed suicide in December 2007 after discovering her husband was having an affair.
After her suicide her blog resurfaced on many websites causing widespread anger over Wang's behaviour and prompting an Internet search for the contact details of him and his family, the report said.
The court ruled that Daqi.com and a friend of Wang's wife who set up a web page on the issue caused "emotional distress" by invading Wang's privacy by posting his personal information, it said.
According to Xinhua, Daqi.com made the blog the focus of a special web page which revealed the name of Wang's mistress and posted photos of her with him and other information.
Another website involved in the suit was not ordered to pay damages because it deleted some of the information about Wang, it added.
Due to harassment by Internet surfers, Wang eventually lost his job as colleagues found out about his affair, while angry websurfers went so far as to scrawl obscenities on the door of his parents' apartment, the news agency said.
Media reports also soundly criticised Wang for his infidelity, it said.
