Categories: OLD Media Moves

Japanese company loses in defamation case against Reuters

Japan’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp. to hear its defamation case against Reuters, upholding two lower court rulings that its case against the news agency lacked merit.

Nathan Layne of Reuters reports, “Universal had sued Reuters in Tokyo in December 2012, demanding 200 million yen ($1.79 million) and apologies, for stories relating to $40 million in payments Universal made to a consultant in relation to a casino project in the Philippines.

“In 2015, the Tokyo District Court ruled that the Reuters’ articles were accurate, and the company then lost an appeal last year at the Tokyo High Court, which upheld the lower court’s ruling.

“The Reuters articles were about Universal’s payments to Rodolfo Soriano, a close associate of the former head of the Philippine gaming authority, and an investigation by the Nevada gambling regulator into the payments.

“Universal denies any wrongdoing.

“A Reuters spokesperson said: ‘We are pleased with this resolution, which upholds the right of the press to report on news in the public interest.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.