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The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the original decision against Sungkyunkwan Foundation by again quashing its defamation suit against the author and publisher of the book ˇ°Only If Confucius Dies Can the Nation Liveˇ±.
The court said in its ruling that to constitute defamation, the text must include clear statements that damage the reputation of a certain individual or group, but the book does not contain any such expressions and thus cannot be considered harmful to the reputation of Sungkyunkwan Foundation, which promotes and develops Confucianist thought.
It added that the text's research, analysis and criticism on Confucius and Confucian sages reflects the author's - and society's - freedom of speech, and cannot be deemed illegal even though it may at times appear excessive, improper, acrimonious or even biased.
The Sungkyunkwan Foundation filed a lawsuit in 1999 against the author for insulting followers of Confucius and Confucianism by using 110 inappropriate expressions, including one that reads, ˇ°Confucianism was born out of falsityˇ± and a reference to the ˇ°Confucius virus.ˇ±
(Choi Jae-hyuk, jhchoi@chosun.com )
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