七仙羽 will lose her defamation lawsuit against 伍仔 (His real name being 伍博頤). There is no doubt about it. If I were licensed to practice in Hong Kong and still living there, I would have volunteered to serve as Hong Kong YouTuber Mr. Ng’s pro-bono lawyer, i.e. defending him for free.
As award-winning researcher with extensive experience in freedom of expression (including defamation law) and now teaching free speech courses at a top German university, I deem it my duty to share my expertise and thoughts on this timely matter.
While I am a US-trained lawyer, I know that several legal principles are shared by various common law jurisdictions when it comes to defamation. Defamation is the act of destroying a person’s reputation by communicating a false allegation of fact about that person to a third party. An opinion is not defamatory, especially if it is supported by facts. Many of Mr. Ng’s statements are his opinions based on complaints he received from Qi Xianyu’s former clients and her failure to furnish proof of her educational credentials. Even if some of Mr. Ng’s statements of fact turn out to be untrue, he can use “fair comment”/ “honest opinion” (the exact working depends on the jurisdiction) as his defense, claiming that those are his sincere and honest opinions. Additionally, his comments about possible fraud, backed by numerous complaints about Qi Xianyu, serve an important public interest. The bar for defaming public figures and celebrities-in this case Qi-is also higher than that for private citizens, because public figures can reasonably expect the public to criticize them and many such criticisms often serve public interests.
It is reasonable to surmise that Qi Xianyu has filed the claim in her attempt to silence Mr. Ng. I predict that she won’t dare to testify before the court and so won’t likely pursue the lawsuit, because if she does, she would have to expose herself, meaning to reveal many details of her background that she has been evasive about, including her place of birth and her educational background. Her persona would completely fall apart. Her claim would not survive the scrutiny by the court: due to her lack of a license to practice Chinese/naturopathic medicine despite claiming to be a Chinese/naturopathic doctor on her now defunct website, Mr. Ng’s statements then would be shown to be true: truth is another major defense to defamation claims.
Many have lost faith in Hong Kong’s legal system. For non-political cases, however, the Hong Kong judiciary generally isn’t too bad and can still be trusted. At this point, I have little doubt that Qi Xianyu will be convicted on some-if not all-offences of which she will be charged. I also hope that those involved in her fraud scheme will be convicted (yes, they include her “husband” Gerald Alserda whose bank account Qi Xianyu provided to her clients to transfer their money).
七仙羽入稟高院告 YouTuber 伍仔 (其真名為伍博頤) 誹謗，但她必然會輸。假若我在香港有律師牌照並且仍在那裡居住，一定會請纓當伍仔的義務律師，不收分文。
我就言論自由這個議題 (包括誹謗案) 擁有廣泛經驗，研究作品數度獲獎，並在頂尖德國大學任教相關法律範疇，因此我認為我絕對有責任去就是次事件分享專業知識和感想。
我雖然在美國接受法律教育，擁有的也是美國律師資格，亦清楚知道一些有關誹謗法的基本原則，為數個普通法管轄區皆相同的。所謂誹謗，指向第三者，以虛假陳述破壞一個人的名譽。發表意見–尤其是基於事實的意見–不是事實陳述，所以不會構成誹謗。伍仔大部份的言論，都是其基於有關七仙羽一些事實的意見，包括她沒提供相關學歷證明，卻於網上堅稱自己擁有中醫資格。即使有些言論被發現是錯誤的陳述，他亦大可以指出他衷心和真誠相信那些是事實。而且有關七仙羽詐騙的言論，涉及很大公眾利益和知情權，再加上公眾人物平日受到各方批評十分正常，故要成功控告他人誹謗自己，相比非公眾人物，在舉證上要達到更高的法律標準。
大家有合理理由相信七仙羽告伍仔，目的純粹要他收聲。我預計她無膽在庭上作供，因此亦不會認真以法律途徑追究，否則便要向公眾揭露自己背景，包括其出生地和受過的教育，而這些資料正是其一直以來含糊其辭的。一旦上庭，她不單人設崩壞，其誹謗訴訟更會在法庭審理之下不堪一擊：因為她在網上聲稱自己是中醫和自然療法醫師，卻根本無有關牌照。伍仔的言論可謂反映真相，而言論屬實，正正是誹謗案最佳抗辯的依據之一。
很多香港人大概對當地法律和司法制度失去了信心。然而，就非政治類別案件，香港司法制度大致上仍未太壞，還是可以信賴的。在此階段，很多人已打算就她的各種惡行作出檢控，我深信就一些–如非所有–檢控，她將被裁定有罪。我亦希望所有涉案人士得到應得的判刑 (對，這些人包括 其”丈夫“ Gerald Alserda，因七仙羽多次提供他的銀行號碼讓客人轉賬。)