Shieh Chung-liang () is a Taiwanese journalist known for his role in a high-profile

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

suit. Shieh received a master's degree in journalism from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. In 1996, he was Taiwan bureau chief of the Hong Kong-based magazine '' Yazhou Zhoukan''. Teaming with reporter Ying Chan, he co-wrote an article on 25 October reporting that Liu Tai-ying, the business manager of Taiwan's

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

political party, had offered $15 million to US President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's re-election campaign. The article also printed a denial from Liu that he had offered the money. Liu went on to file a criminal libel suit against the pair on 7 November. Chen Chao-ping, a political consultant named as the source of the story, was added as a co-defendant. Liu also filed a civil suit for $15 million in damages. ''Yazhou Zhoukan'' defended its reporters and refused to settle the suit outside of court. Calling the trial "a test case for press freedom in Asia",

The Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journ ...

filed an amicus brief on the pair's behalf, as did ten major US media companies. The Kuomintang called a special meeting to endorse the libel suit and condemn Shieh and Chan. However, a Taiwanese district court ruled in the pair's favor on 22 April 1997. The ruling was "hailed as a landmark decision" for press freedom by media watchdog groups, in part because Judge Lee Wei-shen's decision acknowledged the constitutional right to a free press for the first time in Taiwanese judicial history. In November 1997, The Committee to Protect Journalists gave Shieh and Chan its International Press Freedom Award, "an annual recognition of courageous journalism". The award citation stated that " hieh and Chan'scourage sets an example in a region noted for both widespread self-censorship and government intervention in the functioning of the press."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shieh, Chung-Liang Living people Taiwanese journalists University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication alumni Year of birth missing (living people)