Compiled from: Supreme People's Court, The Paper
 
Case review
When Luo was on a train, he did not get off at the station corresponding to his ticket but instead changed cars and continued riding. After being discovered by the train attendant, Luo refused to pay for a ticket supplement and refused to cooperate with the train police during an inspection, leading to a dispute with the train conductor and police. CCTV, after anonymizing Luo and pixelating his face, reported the incident in a program. Luo believed that CCTV's report was defamatory and infringed on his right to reputation, so he sued the court, demanding an apology and compensation for losses.

 
 

The court of first instance dismissed Luo's claim on the grounds that CCTV's report was objective and truthful, with no fault involved. Luo, dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment, filed an appeal.

The court of second instance held that as a news media, CCTV’s important functions include promoting socialist core values and exercising the role of public opinion supervision. CCTV’s coverage of the entire incident was objective and truthful, and there was no insulting or defamatory language in its evaluation of Luo. It also protected Luo’s privacy to the greatest extent. The decline in Luo’s social evaluation was caused by his own improper words and actions, and there was no causal relationship with CCTV’s reporting conduct. Therefore, the judgment was: appeal dismissed, original verdict upheld.

 
 

 
Civil Code of the People's Republic of China
Article 1024
Civil subjects enjoy the right to reputation. No organization or individual may infringe upon others’ right to reputation by means of insult, defamation, or the like.
Reputation refers to the social evaluation of a civil subject’s moral character, prestige, talent, credit, and the like.
 
Article 1025
Where a person engages in news reporting, public opinion supervision, or similar activities for the public interest, thereby affecting another person's reputation, they shall not bear civil liability, except in any of the following circumstances:
(1) Fabricating or distorting facts;
(2) Failing to fulfill the duty of reasonable verification regarding seriously inaccurate content provided by others;
(3) Using insulting language or other means to degrade another person's reputation.
 
Article 1026
The following factors shall be considered in determining whether the actor has fulfilled the reasonable verification obligation as specified in item (2) of the preceding article:
(1) The credibility of the content source;
(2) Whether necessary investigations have been conducted into content that is clearly likely to cause controversy;
(3) The timeliness of the content;
(4) The relevance of the content to public order and good customs;
(5) The likelihood of damage to the victim's reputation;
(6) Verification capability and verification cost.

 
 

 
[1] The author's perspective
Reputation in this case refers to a social evaluation of a natural person, which directly relates to personal dignity and social status and constitutes an important personality interest. From the above legal provisions, it can be seen that insulting or defaming another's reputation through false reports, causing a decline in social evaluation, is one of the acts infringing upon the right to reputation. In this case, China Central Television (CCTV) reported objectively based on facts, and also anonymized and pixelated Luo in the report, fulfilling the media's duty of public oversight in accordance with the law, using this case-based legal explanation to advocate for law-abiding and civilized behavior. Therefore, the decline in Luo's social evaluation stems from his own egregious conduct, not from CCTV's objective and truthful reporting.
 
A drop of water can reflect the radiance of the sun; a single case can illuminate the principles of the rule of law. We live in an open media era, under constant social scrutiny, and we should be mindful of our words and actions. News media, as a conduit for information dissemination and an eye of social oversight, expose improper behavior in society, urging the public to take heed, thereby promoting core socialist values, preventing ugliness from hiding, and allowing truth, goodness, and beauty to flourish.