Ma’s NTCF Wins Defamation Suit Against Clara Chou on Final Appeal

 Ma’s NTCF Wins Defamation Suit Against Clara Chou on Final Appeal

Source: UDN

October 19, 2019

Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the immediate-past President, founded the New Taiwanese Cultural Foundation (NTCF) with part of the government subsidies for his electoral campaign expenses in 1999’s Taipei City mayoral race. In 2015, TV personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) claimed on a TV political talk show that the NTCF possessed assets of nearly NT$1 billion (approx. US$33 million), including donations from the Ting Hsin International Group, and the money had been used for Ma’s presidential campaigns (2008 & 2012) ads in media. The NTCF then filed a defamation suit with a court against Chou for spreading untruthful information, seeking NT$1 in damages, while demanding at the same time that Chou advertise an apology in local newspapers.

The court of first instance handling this case ruled against Chou, demanding that she clarify her statements of defamation against the NTCF in Formosa E-paper and four large-circulation newspapers, i.e., the United Daily News (UDN), China Times, Liberty Times, and Apple Daily. However, the Taiwan Provincial High Court, the appellate court, opined that the UDN and China Times had not reported the news concerning Chou’s defamation against the NTCF at that time, ruling that Chou needed to clarify the matter only in Liberty Times and Apple Daily. Both Chou and the NTCF appealed the appellate court’s ruling.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court indicated that whether Formosa E-paper had reported the news should still be ascertained, so the Supreme Court remanded to the lower court for retrial concerning this part, and rejected the appeal on the other part involving Liberty Times and Apple Daily. It was confirmed that Chou was ruled to clarify her statements of defamation in Liberty Times and Apple Daily on final appeal.

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