By Wu Shuaishuai
BEIJING, Dec. 22 -- On December 21, China's Hangzhou Internet Court held a public hearing on a civil public lawsuit concerning the online insulting actions to a revolutionary hero. The court ordered three defendants to make public apologies in national level media and pay RMB 150,000 in compensation for public interest damage.
The case involved deceased General He Kexi, a revolutionary pioneer with remarkable contribution to the struggle for national independence and people's liberation in China, who falls into the category of heroes defined by the law of China.
From October 2022 to July 2023, three individuals surnamed Guo (with 28,000 online social media followers), He (with 3.56 million followers), and Fu (with about 5,000 followers) produced and published videos through their respective "we-media" accounts, arbitrarily using General He's profile photo to refer to the head portraits of notorious historical figures. The videos had been widely spread since their release on the internet, which made an extremely bad impact on the image of General He.
According to the procuratorial organ, "We-media" creators have the obligation to ensure the objectivity and authenticity of the information they publish and refrain from disseminating false information that infringes on the legitimate rights of others. In this case, the three defendants failed to fulfill the obligation, which not only caused bad social influence, but also hurt the feelings of the hero's family and undermined social ethics and public morality of honoring heroes and martyrs. Therefore, they should bear civil tort liability in accordance with the law.
On November 30, 2023, the People's Procuratorate of Xihu District in Hangzhou City, as a prosecutor of public interest litigation, filed a civil public interest lawsuit to the Hangzhou Internet Court to investigate the civil tort liability of Guo, He, and Fu.
After the trial, the Hangzhou Internet Court made the above-mentioned judgment in accordance with Article 185 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China.
During the trial, the three defendants clearly expressed that they had realized their mistakes. They apologized to the public and were willing to bear the liability of compensation for public interest damage.
