Today’s Legal Mirror takes great delight in announcing that an article it printed last December was used as evidence in a trial that concluded this morning.
In December, a 70-year-old woman was struck by a turning car as she was caught in the middle of the road when the light changed. While she was trying to get to her feet, the light changed again and another car struck her, despite the attempts of onlookers to stop the car. The woman died at the scene, and the Mirror‘s article was instrumental in convincing the court to rule against the driver and to award 200,000 yuan to the woman’s children.
Today’s article includes the following (translation):
The judges…believed that this news article was objective and truthful. It convinced the court of the situation at the scene and confirmed the facts of the case.
Moreover, the judge in charge of this case said that of the several hundred cases he has handled this year, this case is the first in which a news article has been used as evidence. Upon verifying this, I found that it is also the first time that a news report has been used in Chaoyang courts to confirm the facts of a case. In the rest of the city’s courts, I have learned, it is also extremely rare.
Links:
Legal Mirror article (in Chinese)