Internet censorship victim wins court case

Above is a short video interview with Liu Xiaoyuan (刘晓原), the lawyer and blogger who sued Sohu.com for deleting his blog posts, and recently acted as defense attorney for Yang Jia, the cult hero cop killer.

The interview was shot by Adam J. Schokora at the Chinese bloggers conference in Guangzhou in November 2008.

Yesterday evening, The Financial Times reported on a similar case:

A Beijing judge has ruled that an internet hosting company was wrong to close a prominent government critic’s website over allegedly illegal content, in the first-ever case won by a victim of internet censorship in a Chinese court.

Hu Xingdou, an economics professor who regularly discusses topics ranging from corruption to police brutality on his web page, sued Beijing Xin Net in April after the hosting company sent him an e-mail saying the site contained “illegal” content and had been shut down.

In a verdict issued on May 20, the Daxing district court said the company had failed to provide proof for its claim and to prove that it asked Mr Hu to change the content before closing the site, as required in their contract.

As demanded by Mr Hu, the court ordered Xin Net to return the RMB1,370 ($201, €143, £126) fee he had paid for two years of services. The verdict did not discuss the issue of free speech.

Update: The Guardian newspaper also reported on the court case.