發展局局長陳茂波被指與妻子許步明聯署電郵誹謗漢基國際學校校董盧光漢及其龍鳳胎子女 - Paul Chan and Wife Accused of Defamation
Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and his wife Frieda Hui Po-ming are being sued by Carl Lu and his twin children Jonathan and Caitlin, both 20, in the Court of First Instance.
The Lus say that emails sent by the couple between December 1 and 15, 2011, ruined their reputations. Carl Lu is a well-known businessman and member of the Chinese International School board of governors. His children were pupils at the school, and Jonathan Lu was head boy.
The Lus' lawyer, Robert Whitehead SC, described Chan's and Hui's allegations as a "nasty situation". The couple had said in the emails they were acting out of love for the school.
"It is OK to love the school, but it is not a licence to repeatedly libel two schoolchildren and their father," Whitehead said.
The case started with a rumour among pupils and their parents in November 2011, Whitehead said, after four pupils claimed that the twins had behaved suspiciously during an exam because they looked around and had slips of paper.
The pupils reported it to their teacher and the school conducted two inquiries but ruled there was no evidence showing that the twins had cheated.
The daughter of Chan and Hui was in the same year as the twins in the school, and Hui sent an email titled "Head boy cheating" to 14 parents and the parent-teacher association's former chairman on December 1, 2011.
In the email, Hui wrote that she had heard that the twins escaped punishment because their father was a member of the school's board of governors.
Whitehead said Hui specified that her husband Chan was then a lawmaker and repeatedly said "Paul and I had the same feeling" to make her claims appear more credible.
On December 3, Justin Alexander, head of the school's secondary section, called Hui to inform her that the school found the twins had "no case to answer" to the cheating allegation, the lawyer said.
But Hui continued sending the emails to other parents, including to Teresa Ko Yuk-yin, a parent and a solicitor, on December 6. She also said Jonathan Lu had been suspected of having cheated a year earlier but was never punished for it.
Whitehead said Hui did not know Ko personally, but asked her to attend a meeting to discuss the matter with the school's headmaster two days later. Hui then sent emails to other parents, writing "Good news, Teresa will attend. She is a famous and experienced lawyer and it will put us in an advantageous position."
The lawyer said Chan might resort to "BMW, or blame my wife" as his defence, but Hui had used Chan's name to send the emails and he was included in the mailing list as well.
Chan also had to bear the liability as he allowed those emails to be spread, Whitehead said.
Describing defamation as an "assassination of people's reputation", Whitehead said: "One cannot evade their liability by claiming that it was a rumour." Hui made matters worse by circulating the rumour, he added.
The trial, which is expected to last, continues before Mr Justice Anthony To Kwai-fung and a seven-person jury today.
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http://www.orientaldaily.com.hk/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20140905/bkn-20140905222914684-0905_00822_001.html
發展局局長陳茂波於2011年擔任立法會議員時，被指與妻子許步明聯署電郵誹謗漢基國際學校校董盧光漢及其龍鳳胎子女，案件今日(5日)繼續由原告律師陳詞。原告指，漢基的學生及家長之間常互相妒忌，盧光漢的兒子盧冠中當時身為漢基的總領袖生，更是眾矢之的，當陳氏夫婦投訴校方未有正視作弊事件時，有人向哈佛大學發匿名電郵告發盧冠中懷疑作弊，盧冠中最終雖被證實無辜，但他想入讀哈佛的美夢卻被粉碎，原告一方未能查出告密者身份。
3名原告分別是盧光漢、其子盧冠中及其女盧亮臻。2名被告是陳茂波和許步明。原告透露，盧冠中一直夢想入讀哈佛大學，但哈佛於2011年12月14日收到匿名電郵，有人告發他在漢基作弊，寄件人稱希望協助哈佛評估其入學申請，盧氏一家得悉後感到心碎及震驚，原告試圖追查告密來源但不果。
原告表明不會在本案中指控陳氏夫婦為寄件者，但卻想指出告密電郵的內容、用字及發送時間，均與陳氏夫婦的投訴巧合。漢基其後回覆哈佛查詢時，澄清作弊指控不成立及表揚盧冠中，但哈佛決定暫緩其入學申請，盧冠中結果未能入讀哈佛，現為史丹福大學學生。
原告指，漢基校方於2011年11月經2次調查，已裁定指控盧氏兄妹作弊不成立，校方原本只想邀請陳氏夫婦就投訴作弊事件會面，但他們於12月8日帶同5名家長與會，又在會前向眾家長派發含誹謗內容的會議撮要，校方當日承諾就盧冠中進行第3次調查。校方最後維持原判，並把結果通知有關學生及家長，但許其後仍向校方發電郵要求正視校譽及學習誠信，校方其後要向全校約1千名家長發公開信，公開點名澄清盧冠中並無作弊。
原告在興訟前曾向陳氏夫婦發律師信，要求對方在報章登報道歉及賠償，但對方一直無道歉。陳在原告興訟後向傳媒發新聞稿，稱對原告指控感到不解，又指獲漢基家長支持。原告批評陳此舉有誤導公眾之嫌。盧氏兄妹受事件困擾，盧光漢希望捍衞家人及子女，只想對方道歉，興訟是為公義而非金錢。案件下周續審，原告一方將傳召3名原告、漢基校長方泰德及漢基中學部校長安澤廷作供。
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