The Taiwan High Court has upheld the first-instance ruling, holding that Taiwan People's Party chairman Huang Kuo-chang does not have to pay damages over his criticism of Mirror Media. The outcome is a positive one for freedom of speech and for the room politicians have to criticise the media, and a setback for Mirror Media Group, which brought the suit.

• Mirror Media Group sued Huang Kuo-chang over three occasions on which he called Mirror Media "trash media, a trash weekly," seeking NT$1 million in damages; both the first-instance and appeal courts ruled that no damages were owed.
• The High Court found that the remarks were comment on a matter of legitimate public concern rather than statements of fact, and did not exceed reasonable bounds.
• The dispute stems from Mirror Media's series of reports on Ko Wen-je's Core Pacific City case, with Huang Kuo-chang questioning whether the reports had obtained information from an ongoing investigation and were steering public opinion with one-sided material.
• The court also held that Huang Kuo-chang's reaction, as a sitting legislator pressed by reporters at the time, was the kind of response commonly seen from anyone, and that the media should tolerate it.

Outlook: The case can still be appealed; should Mirror Media Group appeal, the battleground will shift to the Supreme Court.