A Taiwanese blogger whose name has only been released as Mrs. Liu, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for saying that the Sichuan Flavour Beef Noodle Restaurant has noodles that are “too salty” on her blog. That’s not all she said either. In the offending blog post she also noted the presence of cockroaches and called the owner a “bully.” After finding out about this scathing review, the restaurant’s owner promptly sued for defamation.
During the hearing, the judge decided that while Mrs. Liu’s comments regarding the cockroaches were passable by virtue of being statements of fact, her comments on the noodles were out of line; she had only eaten a single serving of the noodles and was not in a position to judge the restaurant’s menu on the whole. She recieved 30 days jail time, two years of probation afterwards and was required to pay roughly $6,800 in damages in addition to being told to apologize. Noodles are serious business in Taiwan.
(via Telegraph.co.uk)
