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School files criminal complaint over slandering on online bulletin board
Mainichi Shinbun, January 16, 2007
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070116p2a00m0na002000c.html

ODAWARA, Kanagawa — The operator of a school where dozens of children who have dropped out of other schools are enrolled in has filed a criminal complaint with law enforcers over online bulletin board messages slandering the school, sources said.

In its complaint filed with Odawara Police Station, the Shonan Linus Gakuen corporation does not identify the suspects, who have withheld their names on the website.

The corporation accuses the unidentified suspects of placing more than 2,000 messages on the popular “Ni-Channeru” (“Channel 2”) bulletin board slandering the school and its operator between December 2005 and October 2006.

“The president of the corporation has mental problems,” one of the messages read.

“If you attend Linus, your academic ability will decline,” another message said.

Linus Gakuen charges that these messages damaged the public’s confidence in it and defamed it and its president.

Following the incident, some students quit the school while other children who were to join the school decided not to do so.

The school operator has asked Hiroyuki Nishimura, who manages the Ni-Channeru site, to delete the slandering messages, but he has not complied.

Currently, 43 students who have dropped out of other schools or are suffering from learning disorders are studying at Linus’ elementary, junior high and high schools that were opened in April 2005 with special permission from the government under its structural reform policies. (Mainichi)

Click here for the original Japanese story
January 16, 2007
ENDS