A man and a website were yesterday fined by a Beijing court for their involvement in the country's first online harassment lawsuit.

The Chaoyang District People's Court ordered Zhang Leyi and Beijing Lingyun Interactive Information and Technology Co Ltd to pay plaintiff Wang Fei 5,000 yuan (US$732) and 3,000 yuan, respectively.

The fines were for invading Wang's privacy and tarnishing his reputation through online activities that included displaying his personal information for public viewing and abuse.

Zhang and the website were also ordered to immediately delete contents they had posted online that invaded Wang's privacy and harmed his reputation, as well as publish apologies for their actions online.

Zhang and the website also have to pay Wang 684 yuan and 683 yuan, respectively, for the notarization fees the plaintiff paid for the lawsuit.

The court pardoned a second website accused in the case, Tianya, and turned down Wang's request for compensation and apology "as the website had adopted timely measures to prevent online forums and publication of contents damaging Wang's reputation and privacy", chief judge Xu Juan said while reading the verdict.

Zhang's lawyer said his client would appeal, while the website's representatives said they have yet to decide on their next course of action.

"This is the first lawsuit in the country related to 'online violence' or a 'cyber manhunt' dispute," Yuan Jing, an information officer with the court, told China Daily.

Beijinger Wang took the three parties to court in April, after finding his private information was posted on the websites.

It all started with the diary his wife Jiang Yan, who leapt to her death from their 24th-story apartment on December 29 last year, had left on her blog.

The diary narrated Jiang's misery after discovering her husband's adultery two months earlier; and later made public on a website set up by the wife's university classmate Zhang.

Zhang said the website was to "commemorate Jiang's death and help bring her justice".

Once word got out, the cyber hunt for the cheating husband began. Wang, in his 20s, soon found himself on top of a "most-wanted list" on the Internet.

Net users sniffed out and placed his photos, addresses and phone numbers on major portals for all to see and abuse. Expletives were painted on the door of his parents' home, including such slogans as "driving the good wife to death" and "blood must be repaid with blood".

Strangers contacted the company where Wang and his lover worked. The company later suspended the couple and they were reportedly forced to resign.

Wang said it was hard to find a new job under such circumstances when there were attacks on his reputation from all sides.

"As Zhang was spreading the details of the affair, he also gave out details of Wang's real name, name of his company and even family addresses, which infringed the plaintiff's privacy rights," the chief judge said.

In the unprecedented lawsuit, Wang demanded a total of 135,000 yuan as compensation for mental trauma from the three parties.

Wang's case fueled a hot privacy debate and experts and Net users were divided on privacy standards.

However, Qiu Baochang, dean of Beijing-based Huijia Law Firm, said he supported the court ruling.

"Each citizen has rights to online speech, but we should never hurt others' rights and interests while exercising our rights," he told China Daily.

Liu Deliang, a professor in cyber law at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, defended the actions of the accused.

"Every citizen has lots of information released all the time. If the information is properly used, especially in the public interest, it should not be called invasion of privacy," Liu told China Daily.

Since some of the information on Wang was used to track him to disclose the affair he was having, "it is in the public interest area instead of damaging Wang's privacy as he claimed". The public has the right to know the real story behind the issue, Liu added.

The professor even cited as an example the public's right to know detailed personal information of a murderer at large.

(China Daily December 19, 2008)