Recently the NHK News
On-line reported the following:
「記事は真実」 東京高裁 週刊文春の賠償額を大幅減
11月22日 17時36分
流通大手「イオン」が、週刊文春に掲載された食品に関する記事や広告の見出しで名誉を傷つけられたと訴えた裁判で、２審の東京高等裁判所は、見出し以外は真実だと認め、賠償の額を１審の２４００万円から１１０万円に減らす判決を言い渡しました。
４年前、三重県の卸売会社が産地を偽装していたコメがイオンで販売された弁当などに使われていたことをめぐり、週刊文春は「『中国猛毒米』偽装イオンの大罪を暴く」という見出しで広告を出し、記事を掲載しました。
イオンは１億６５００万円の賠償などを求める訴えを起こし、１審の東京地方裁判所は見出しや記事の一部が真実とは認められないとして文藝春秋に２４９０万円余りの賠償を命じました。
２２日の２審の判決で東京高等裁判所の野山宏裁判長は、記事の内容は真実だとして１審の判決を変更したうえで「食品の安全に関して問題を提起する良質の言論で、裁判を起こすことで萎縮させるのではなく、言論の場で論争を深めていくことが望まれる」と指摘しました。
一方で、広告の見出しを見た人にコメに猛毒が含まれていたという誤った印象を抱かせるとして、文藝春秋に対して１１０万円の賠償などを命じました。
判決について文藝春秋は「１審判決の大部分が否定され、記事の正当性がほぼ認められたものと受け止めている」とコメントしています。
一方、イオンは「名誉毀損が一部認められた判決と理解しているが、判決文を精査して対応を検討する」とコメントしています。
My translation
In a trial in which the major distributor
"Aeon" argued that it had been defamed by the headline of an article
on food which appeared in Bungeishunju, the Tokyo high court in the second trial ruled
that except for its headline the article was true, and gave the decision to reduce
the amount of the compensation to 1.1 million yen from 24 million yen in the
first trial.
Four years ago an
article in Bungeishunju gave a notice in its headline by saying that " ‘Chinese
deadly poisonous rice’ - a great sin in camouflage by Aeon was exposed" regarding the lunch box sold
in Aeon that used the rice from a
wholesale company in Mie-ken that had camouflaged
the place of production of the rice.
Aeon initiated a lawsuit for a
compensation of 165 million yen, and the Tokyo district court in the first
trial refused to admit that the headline and part of the article were true and
commanded Bungeishunju to pay a compensation
of about 24.9 million yen.
On the 22nd
in the second trial, Hiroshi Noyama the presiding judge of the Tokyo high court
changed the judgment of the first trial because
the contents of the
article were true. In addition he pointed out that “it is a good discussion in which
it draws attention to the problem on food safety, the trial instead
of causing it to shrink, it is
hoped that it could deepen
arguments through discussions".
On the other hand, as it was supposed that the headline of advertisement had made people who saw it to hold a wrong impression that deadly poison was
included in rice, Bungeishunju was ordered to made a compensation of 1.1million yen.
Regarding the court
decision, Bungeishunju commented that "most of the court decisions in the first trial have been denied and that most of the justification for the article has been accepted”.
On the other hand Aeon commented that “the judgment could be
understood as that it partially recognized there was defamation, yet the judgment
sentence will be reviewed to consider a response".
It is an interesting legal case. I think the
lawyers from Bungeishunju had done a very good job.
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