In the latest update since the case was exposed to public three years ago, a court in Haidian district in Beijing rejected on Tuesday the plaintiff’s claims of being sexually harassed by CCTV anchor, Zhu Jun, due to the lack of evidence.
The People’s Court of Haidian District in Beijing heard the case of the plaintiff, surnamed Zhou, and the defendant Zhu in the case of general personality rights disputes and pronounced a verdict, according to the court’s statement on Tuesday.
The first instance judgment was made rejecting Zhou’s allegation after the court found that the evidence presented by Zhou was insufficient to prove the sexual harassment claims.
The allegation was first brought to the public in July, 2018 when a user of Sina Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, dubbed “Maishao Tongxue” posted an article on July 26 claiming that Zhu sexually harassed one of her friends. In the post, the woman who was an intern under Zhu, claimed that he attempted to grope her but was interrupted by one of the show’s guests. The woman then called the police but did not receive any feedback.
The post was widely shared by other Weibo users, including some prominent journalists.
Zhu sued the social media user for spreading sexual harassment accusations against him and acquired the services of a Beijing-based law firm to investigate the case.
The case continued to brew when Zhou filed a lawsuit to the People’s Court of Haidian District formally suing Zhu on a personality rights dispute and successfully filed the case in October, 2018.
Zhu had requested the suspension of the trial or to merge the case with the reputation rights lawsuit but it was rejected by the court.
Photo:VCG
