A Beijing court ordered a local newspaper on Monday to pay
compensation and make an apology to a young woman orphaned by AIDS
for revealing her identity.
Beijing Chaoyang District Court ordered the local China Times to
pay the 19-year-old woman 20,000 yuan and issue an apology on its
front page for a report published last December.
The report written by a journalist surnamed Hu carried three
photos of the woman and the story of her sufferings after her
parents, who contracted AIDS after selling blood, died earlier this
decade.
Hu was accused of violating the young woman's privacy and
damaging her reputation as the photos clearly revealed her face and
carried her real name.
Although the daily was not the first to report the woman's
story, Hu never interviewed the young woman and he bought her
photos from a website. His story was scalped from other news
reports and the woman's own anonymous writings on the Internet.
His later insistence that he had done nothing improper outraged
Jin Wei, an AIDS activist who supported the woman's education.
After her identity was revealed the young woman's grads dropped
sharply and she lost confidence in herself, said Jin.
Jin filed a lawsuit against China Times in March when government
regulations on the prevention and control of AIDS came into effect.
The 39th article stipulates that no institution or individual are
allowed to make public the names of people who are HIV/AIDS
positive or their relatives.
China has an estimated 650,000 people with HIV/AIDS and
discrimination against such people is still widespread.
China Times argued that it published the story to raise
awareness of AIDS and did not intend to violate the woman's
privacy.
According to the court, the newspaper report could negatively
affect the 19-year-old's future and the report was unethical.
Jin Wei said the young woman was happy with the verdict but
thought the compensation was low. China Times said it would
not appeal.
(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)