Buddha Voice Broadcasting Alliance v. Sioeng
Plaintiff Huei Chin Yang (Yang), a Buddhist, wrote an article about the contemporary Buddhist leader H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III that ran in a local Southern California Chinese newspaper, the International Daily News, in July 2011. Later that month, the article was republished in a newspaper published in China, the People’s Daily Overseas Edition. Plaintiffs’ third amended complaint (TAC) asserted claims for defamation and fraud, alleging that both newspapers, after initial publication of the article, published defamatory statements about the article that it was an “advertisement†and “illegal[ly]†placed in the People’s Daily Overseas Edition. The trial court granted defendants’ special motion to strike under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16,[1] finding that the article concerned a matter of public interest and that plaintiffs could not establish a reasonable probability of prevailing on the merits of their claims. We affirm.
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