Tag: libel

Below is a video of Korean journalist Byun Hee-jae being perp walked to court for a libel arrest where he releases a statement about his unfair arrest.  ROK Heads may remember that Byun is the Korean journalist who has been disputing the origin of the tablet PC that led to the eventual impeachment of former President Park Gun-hye:

What I found ironic about the video was that the JTBC President of news, Son Suk-hee went after Byun for libel because of protests against him.

The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office requested the warrant as JTBC anchor Sohn Suk-hee and the reporters as well as their families felt threatened.

Byun and his readers held rallies in front of Sohn’s residence and the church Sohn’s wife attended. Byun also warned that Sohn “could be murdered by the forces trying to conceal the truth if he doesn’t reveal the truth himself.” Byun denied the libel charges, claiming he was raising reasonable suspicions.  [Korea Herald]

First of all let me state that I do not support anyone protesting in front of someone’s home or church.  With that said the Korean left used protests against board members of KBS and MBC news to get them to resign.  Labor union members followed the board members and their families to universities, workplaces, churches and other locations they went and harassed them.  The harassment became too much and the board members resigned thus allowing the Moon Jae-in administration to appoint left wing board members to seize control of MBC and KBS.

The consolidation of these networks under left wing control eliminated negative coverage of President Moon from two of the biggest media outlets in Korea.  The arrest of Byun Hee-jae can arguably be described as yet another attempt to suppress negative media coverage of the Moon administration.  By throwing him in jail it will send a message to journalists working at the two major conservative newspapers the Chosun Ilbo and Joong Ang Ilbo to not publish negative stories about the Moon administration or its allies or face being arrested.

"Democracy dies in darkness"https://t.co/9qHjbtRTag
This time, it's Im Jong-seok, President Moon's Chief of Staff with the well-documented history of pro-North Korean activism, suing a conservative journalist & commentator for calling him "jusapa," a North Korean sympathizer.

— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) May 31, 2018

Another example of how the defamation laws in South Korea are used to silence political opposition:

A conservative commentator has been arrested on libel charges regarding his claim that media reports that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye were manipulated.

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, citing a risk of the suspect destroying evidence.

Byun is accused of spreading false information through his book “The Curse of Sohn Suk-hee” and his online articles, arguing that local cable channel JTBC manipulated the content of a tablet PC and made it look like it was used by Choi Soon-sil, a long-time confidante of the former president.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office filed for the warrant last Friday, accusing Byun of slandering JTBC, its president Sohn Suk-hee and its reporters without reasonable grounds.

The tablet PC was used as critical evidence proving that Choi had interfered in state affairs, leading to Park’s impeachment last year.  [KBS World News]

For those that don’t remember the tablet was mysteriously found in an office once rented by Park Geun-hye’s friend Choi Soon-shil who was at the center of the scandal.  The finding of the tablet PC was the key news that created the momentum to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.

JTBC only admitted where it found the tablet after changing its story multiple times about the origin of the tablet.  If it was in fact found in the old office I always found it interesting how it was conveniently left with such sensitive information on it and no password protection.  Additionally the Korean courts did not consider the tablet as evidence during the trial against President Park because it was tampered with.

This is just another example that South Korea does not have freedom of speech because of its libel laws:

“T,” a Liberian-born resident of Gyeonggi Province married to a South Korean, had an unpleasant experience while riding a bus in Nov. 2016. The passenger in the seat next to her, a man in his sixties surnamed Kim, began harassing T. When passengers tried to stop him, Kim pointed at T and said, “It’s illegal for this girl to be here.” T was not an undocumented foreigner, but a South Korean resident with an F6 (marriage) visa. In Kim’s eyes, however, all foreigners were seen as undocumented migrant workers. T brought her experience up during the Q&A session at a symposium held that Nov. 30 by the Gyeonggi Institute of Research and Development for Migrants’ Human Rights on the topic of racial discrimination and policy measures for its reduction.

One of the symposium’s discussants, attorney Choi Jeong-gyu of the law firm Wongok, took an interest in T’s story.  Choi decided to represent T in a defamation complaint against Kim. It wasn’t easy: Kim kept denying all charges during the police questioning stages, and while the police recognized the incident as a case of harassment in a crowded public setting according to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc., of Sexual Crimes, they forwarded the case to prosecutors with a recommendation not to press defamation charges. However, in April, the prosecutors delivered Kim for trial on charges of both harassment and defamation.

Judge Hon. Kim Do-hyeong of the eighth criminal division of Suwon District Court’s Ansan branch found Kim guilty on both charges last May and sentenced him to a fine of 2 million won (US$1,840). “In November 2016, the defendant boarded a bus and engaged in harassment while talking to the victim, who was sitting next to him,” the court concluded. “When stopped by other passengers, he declared that it was ‘illegal for this girl to be here,’ and he continued insulting the victim with abusive language even after disembarking.”  [Hankyoreh]

You can read more at the link, but this guy was clearly a jerk for harassing this woman minding her own business on the bus.

What could possibly be going on is that some in the Park administration may be resentful of Jung having influence over President Park and leaked this document in an attempt to sideline him:

President Park Geun-hye on Monday condemned the disclosure of documents regarding Chung Yoon-hoi, a former aide, calling for a thorough investigation.

“(I) do not know what the intention behind leaking the documents was, but it is an act that damages national order,” Park said at a meeting with senior presidential staff.

Saying that real and false information accumulated at the presidential office, the president said that the country will fall into “major chaos and social discord” if information gathered by her office is released to the public without verification.

Going on to say that simple fact-checking could have determine the claims, veracity, Park said similar “groundless incidents” should not recur.

“Who leaked the documents and for what purpose must quickly be made known. The prosecution should investigate and leave no suspicion unexamined.”

On Nov. 28, a local daily reported that Chung was manipulating state affairs as a core member of an unofficial group of advisers to the president citing documents compiled by Cheong Wa Dae’s office for public servants’ discipline.

The presidential office has filed a criminal complaint against a police superintendent identified as Park for allegedly removing concerned documents from Cheong Wa Dae when he was reassigned back to the National Police Agency in February.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but Jung is also the person that Park was rumored to be having a private relationship with that is the source of another libel suit against a Japanese reporter.