Beijing's Dongcheng court vows to improve handling of cultural cases

A Beijing court has pledged to provide better legal services to serve cultural development, with greater efforts to improve the quality of relevant case hearings.

After being named as the capital's talent pool for handling cultural cases in September last year, the Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court, located in the downtown, has solved a number of disputes in the field, mainly covering concerts, dramas, publication, museums, cultural relics and tourism, according to a statement released by the court on Friday.

In one case, for example, a man surnamed Wu initiated a lawsuit against a ticket agent, claiming that a concert seating map posted on its online platform did not match the actual situation, and he demanded that the company refund 1,700 yuan ($240) he spent on the ticket last year.

"The online map showed my seat was not blocked, but when I arrived at the concert, I found that half of the stage was blocked by a large scaffold, which severely affected my watching experience," Wu told the court.

After an investigation, the court ruled in favor of Wu to protect the cultural rights of audience and urge the healthy development of the performance industry.

Details of nine other influential cultural cases were also disclosed by the court on Friday, showing its judicial determination and support to promote the capital's cultural development.

"We'll continue to improve our trial system to give stronger cultural protection by rule of law, with better legal services to help deepen the city's reform in the cultural field," Zeng Jin, an official from the court added.