BY DAISUKE NAKAI THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals posting comments on the Internet must be held to the same standards for criminal libel as writers in other forms of media.
The unprecedented ruling means that individuals can be held criminally responsible for their Internet postings.
In its decision dated Monday, the court's First Petty Bench rejected an appeal filed by a 38-year-old man found guilty by the Tokyo High Court of libel in connection with his postings about a company that operated franchise ramen shops.
Between October and November 2002, the man wrote on his own website that the company was a "cult group".
He was indicted in 2004 for libel.
The Tokyo District Court found the man not guilty on grounds that individuals who make Internet postings should be held to a looser standard for libel than mass media companies and experts who place content on the Internet.
However, the Tokyo High Court overturned the lower court ruling and handed down a fine of 300,000 yen (about $3,300). The man appealed to the Supreme Court.
In its ruling, the top court's First Petty Bench said that the Internet postings of individuals are not necessarily considered "low in trust" by those who read them.
The ruling also took into consideration the circumstances of such Internet postings, including the possibility of grave libel damage because an unspecified number of users can instantaneously view the posting and the fact that there was no guarantee the party libeled would have adequate opportunity to respond on the Internet.
The top court ruled that, just as in the case of libel rulings on printed matter or speech, the only way in which libel would not apply is when the person making the posting could show "recognition of adequate cause based on reliable documents and grounds" for what was expressed.
In other words, a person writing on the Internet would have to provide evidence to show that what was posted was believed to be correct.
Turning specifically to the postings made by the defendant, the Supreme Court ruled that "some documents were created from a purely one-sided perspective".
It also said "the defendant's understanding was inadequate" about the information he said his criticism was based on. It said the defendant "never confirmed any of the facts with company officials".
Thus, the Supreme Court ruled the man had libeled the company and rejected his appeal.
The ruling comes after a string of Internet postings that wrongly attacked individuals.
A case uncovered in March 2009 led to indictments on libel and intimidation charges against six individuals who posted messages on a comedian's blog that wrongly labeled him a co-conspirator in a murder case.
Such Internet libel cases are on the rise.
In 2008, Justice Ministry officials who worked on procedures to correct rights violations found 515 cases involving the wrongful use of the Internet, the highest number ever and a 23-percent increase over the previous year.
Of those, 238 cases involved invasion of privacy through the posting of names and addresses on Internet bulletin boards as well as 176 cases of libel.
The Asahi Shimbun
