A netizen in the eastern China province of Fujian has been challenged for posting on a website the photo of a man whom he declared was a thief.

The man with a Web name of Karson in the port city Xiamen, posted the photo image of a man aged between 25 and 30 in a chatroom at www.xmhouse.com, one of the most frequently visited websites in the city that faces China's island province of Taiwan.

In a message he left on the website, Karson said he worked for a state-run organization, and his Dell D600 laptop had been stolen in his own office on the evening of Feb 6.

"The surveillance camera happened to face my desk, and I later found the video image of the man who stole into my office at around 7:00 p.m. and took my computer when he saw no one was there. He then put on his overcoat and left the office, carrying the laptop under his arm," he wrote.

"Does anyone know this man by any chance?" Karson asked and left his cell phone number in his message dated Feb 12.

His message soon stood out among thousands of others about housing and interior decoration -- as the Xiamen-based website mainly provides online real estate consultation. By the time it was deleted by the network administrator on Feb 17, over 2,260 Internet surfers had viewed Karson's message and the photo he attached.

Though some netizens expressed sympathy to Karson in their replies, many others reproached him for what he did.

"Have you got the green light from the police to post this notice?" one of them asked.

Karson replied he had not, and he was not even certain whether the police authority knew anything at all about the case. "For some unknown reasons, the security staff of my organization didn't call the police immediately, and I've no idea whether they did afterwards."

He said he had captured the clearest possible image of the suspect from the videotape and posted it on the Internet, mainly to vent his anger.

But by so doing, he might have wronged the innocent, some netizens said.

"How do you know for certain this man is the thief?" asked one.

"The photo image was not clear enough to provide any valuable clue. In fact, my colleagues are making fun of each other for the slightest resemblance to that man," said one who gave only his surname Zhao.

Police sources also disapproved of Karson's action.

"He should have reported the clues to the police," said an officer on duty at the public security hotline 110. "Besides, individuals are not entitled to publish such notices. Only public security departments can do that." Chen Fuzhen, a lawyer with the local Qizheng Law Firm, said the poster of such an unauthorized notice could even be prosecuted himself for infringement on other's rights.

"It's an overt violation of the citizen's rights of privacy, because strictly speaking, it's against the Chinese law to expose a suspect to the public even if he's been caught red-handed," he said. "And after all, the poster himself is not a detective and may not have enough proof to even sue the man."

Chen said he was also against posting of similar information on the Internet because it could be used to assault others and cause chaos.

China's mainland reported 79.5 million Internet users at the end of 2003. Insiders say legal cases concerning network disputes, ranging from online copyright infringements and plagiarism of homepages to personal assaults, are also emerging. Two residents in Nanjing, a brother and sister, were accused of undermining the reputation of a local welfare home in 2001 when they published articles inconsistent with facts on a major website.

A local court ordered them in the same year to publish an apology on the Internet and pay 500 yuan to the welfare home in indemnity. The two had got into conflict with the welfare home when they attempted to adopt an orphan there.

(People's Daily February 22, 2004)