Say what you will about freedom of speech in the United States, but I’ve yet to hear of a US citizen being arrested for criticizing a restaurant’s food. Which is exactly what happened to a Taiwanese blogger by the name of Liu.
Apparently she visited a beef noodle restaurant three years ago, didn’t really like the place and ranted on her blog about it. She called the place unsanitary for having cockroaches and said the food they serve is too salty.
Hearing about the blog post from another customer, the restaurant’s owner filed defamation charges against the blogger, and this past Tuesday the Taichung branch of Taiwan High Court sentenced her to 30 days of prison, two years of probation and ordered her to pay NT$200.000 (US$6.900) in compensation.
Regarding the decision, the judge said the blogger shouldn’t have called the restaurant’s food “too salty” in general, because all she ordered was dried noodles and two side dishes and that doesn’t reflect the quality of everything they serve.
I guess the blogger should have written a note at the end of her review telling people to take what they just read with a grain of salt.
