Food Blogger Jailed in Taiwan

[DonRocks]

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[Ericandblueboy]

What if libel is a criminal offense here?

[goodeats]

What if libel is a criminal offense here?

But it is in certain states (1/3 have passed laws to be exact). Here, meaning the Commonwealth of Virginia, it is. About 200 cases have been filed between 2001 to 2008, according to Volokh.

(Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean, Eric.)

I rather liked the article Don posted; not to mention that the prosecution occurred in Taichung, which says a lot, i feel.

[Ericandblueboy]

But it is in certain states (1/3 have passed laws to be exact). Here, meaning the Commonwealth of Virginia, it is. About 200 cases have been filed between 2001 to 2008, according to Volokh.

(Otherwise, I'm not sure what you mean, Eric.)

I rather liked the article Don posted; not to mention that the prosecution occurred in Taichung, which says a lot, i feel.

I didn't know libel is a criminal offense in this country, much less this state. It's a little shocking to find that is the case, although I think it should be.

[Gary Tanigawa]

I didn't know libel is a criminal offense in this country, much less this state. It's a little shocking to find that is the case, although I think it should be.

But the offense is only a Class III misdemeanor. In the comments of The Volokh Conspiracy, someone identifying him/herself as a Northern Virginia prosecutor says, "Our office does not even prosecute most Class 3 misdemeanors, certainly not this one. I imagine that the judge would laugh me out of court if I prosecuted one of these." There might be a regional difference in whether the offense is charged: "I have been an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in southern Virginia for less than 10 years, and I don’t think I’ve prosecuted more than 5 (probably not even more than 3) of these offenses in that time. Usually, when people want to prosecute others for insulting words they end up getting warrants for using profane or threatening language (Va. Code 18.2–416, a class 3 misdemeanor) or using profane or threatening language over the phone (Va. Code 18.2–427, a class 1 misdemeanor). These situations usually aren’t isolated incidents and there are frequently violations of the latter statute along with any slander. And since jail time under the latter is something complaints want as a sentencing option, they seldom bring criminal slander charges." Appears unlikely that criminal libel would be the only offense charged.

[SeanMike]

One thing I've been curious about on this case has been the exact wording of the blog post.

About the food, all they say is: "Liu wrote that the restaurant served food that was too salty" - and the judge said because Liu had only been once and had one dish that there wasn't enough evidence. Did the blog post say "ALL the food here is too salty" - or did it clearly say "I had this one thing once, and it was too salty" (which I doubt, given the case)?

That's why I always try to be clear about how often I've had things, etc. For instance, if I wanted to talk about something being too salty, I'd say "I've had the Passenger's beef jerky at least four times, and while I find it delicious, I also find it too salty for me" versus "THERE FOOD IS TWO SALTY OMGLOL!!!1!"

(Not to unnecessarily bag on the Passenger in this thread, but it's actually a subject that's come up multiple times this week!)