Zhou Xiaoxuan was in tears when she emerged from the Beijing court around midnight on Tuesday. ‘I’m really sorry there wasn’t a better result,’ she said in a video clip shared by supporters after the court threw out a sexual harassment case against one of the country’s most famous television hosts.
Zhou claimed she had been forcibly groped and kissed while working as an intern at state broadcaster CCTV in 2014. The case was seen as a test of China’s proclaimed determination to clamp down on abuse, and it galvanized the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement. A court statement said Zhou had provided insufficient evidence, though she told supporters outside the court that the judge had refused to admit some evidence, including video footage taken from outside the room where the alleged assault occurred.
The National Radio and Television Administration wants to encourage programmes that promote what it calls traditional, revolutionary or ‘advanced socialist’ culture
Her video message was soon deleted by internet censors, and she now faces a defamation lawsuit brought by the man she accused.
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