What constitutes a libel in a marital case

Ma Rong, wife of actor Wang Baoqiang, entrusted her lawyer to file a lawsuit in a court in Beijing's Chaoyang district on Tuesday, accusing the actor of maligning her reputation by writing on his micro blog that she had an affair with his agent for which he was divorcing her. Ma has demanded that Wang delete the post and apologize to her.

The Chaoyang court has formally accepted the lawsuit. But people cannot help but wonder why Wang cannot make a statement saying he was dissolving his marriage with Ma after he found that she was cheating on him?

Some lawyers argue that a couple's marital matters - love, affection, arguments, disloyalty - are part of their privacy if they are not known to others and thus should not be made public by anyone, husband and wife included. Adultery, too, is part of a person's private affair and therefore should not be revealed even by the husband or wife, the lawyers say, because it violates the person's privacy rights and could constitute a libel.