七仙羽 will lose her defamation lawsuit against 伍仔 (his real name is 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 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 is still to be trusted. At this point, I hope-and have little doubt-that Qi Xianyu will be convicted somehow, on some-if not all-offences of which she will be charged. As I heard, numerous charges will be brought against her. I 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).