False sex claim costs blogger
A prominent mainland blogger has apologised and paid compensation to a film director's widow for claiming he died while having sex with a prostitute in a hotel, local media reported yesterday.
Song Zude filed a draft apology in Shanghai's Jingan District People's Court on Monday, and paid 150,000 yuan (HK$170,000) of the compensation to Xu Dawen, the widow of Xie Jin .
The payment and apology - the first time Song has publicly admitted being the source of the libelous rumour - came after the court last week seized 118,000 yuan from Song's bank account and sealed four flats owned by him and his brother.
Song, known for exposing celebrity scandals, told the court he would within one week pay Xu the remaining 30,000 yuan of the 298,000 yuan in damages the court awarded.
The apology - handwritten on a single sheet of paper and signed by both Song and Liu Xinda, his twin brother and blogging partner - was the draft of a message the brothers had promised to publish in 10 newspapers for 10 straight days.
Photos on the Xinmin Evening News website showed Song arriving at the courthouse amid a media scrum, and his legal representative handing over bundles of cash.
Song and Liu's original claims hit headlines in tabloid papers and generated intense interest in online discussion forums. Posts on the brothers' blog stated they had seen the 84-year-old filmmaker enter the hotel with a prostitute shortly before he died.
Song had insisted he would stick to 'three principles': no apology, no compensation and no change of heart. Although he refused to comment to reporters, Song had told local media he 'sympathised' with the widow. 'I admit it,' he told the city's official news outlet Eastday.com. 'Liu Xinda and I were wrong. We sincerely admit our mistakes to Madame Xu Dawen.'
When the case first appeared in court in August, lawyers for Song and Liu denied the brothers had posted the claims on their blog, and claimed they were the work of hackers.
Xie, a native of Zhejiang, was a widely respected filmmaker with a career spanning 44 years. He was found dead in a hotel room in his hometown of Shangyu in October 2008, two months after his son died of cancer.
