Taiwan Blogger Fined $7,000 Over Restaurant Review

Mamarazzi was blog hopping this afternoon when she came across "Cindy's Lovely Life" Blog

The title of her post which captured Mamarazzi's attention was "Taiwan blogger fined $7,000 over restaurant review".

Mamarazzi googled and found the following from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/. Here is the reproduction of the news.

A TAIWANESE woman was ordered to compensate a noodle shop $6665 for defamation after criticising the store as unclean and its food as "really bad" on her blog. 

 

Liu Ying-hui escaped a 30-day jail term, with the high court deciding to grant her a two-year suspended sentence after she agreed to compensate the shop, according to the verdict released by the court today.

Liu was convicted of defaming the shop in February for commenting on her blog in 2009 that its food was "really bad ... too salty" while the owner was a "bully" and the shop was "unclean with cockroaches", the verdict said.

A district court in central Taiwan ruled that her remarks "crossed the boundary of an appropriate review" since she had failed to prove her allegations.

It was the latest of a number of controversial rulings involving Internet commentaries, after a teacher was ordered to pay her dentist for calling him a "rat's dropping" in March, according to local media.

Scary. Does this means even bloggers not allowed to give negative reviews?  Everyone knows each person taste in food is different. What you like, I may not like. That is what makes us human.

She posted the link in her Facebook and got a reply from a friend who is in the legal profession. The advice was " If you want to do a 'personal' review when you are not a recognised expert, remember to cite or convey the message that the review is your own personal comments and may not represent the truth..'.

Thank you very much Mr Low for the advice. Hutang you 1 cup of Kopi, okay.