South Korea Seeks Journalist’s Arrest in Defamation Case
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: May 12, 2013
SEOUL, South Korea — State prosecutors are seeking to arrest a South Korean journalist on charges of violating election laws for reporting an unconfirmed suspicion ahead of December’s presidential vote that the brother of the leading candidate might have been involved in the killing of a relative, the journalist’s lawyers said Sunday.
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In the indictment, a copy of which was made available on Sunday, the prosecutors said the journalist, Choo Chin-woo, had written articles and made a podcast that “defamed” and “spread false information” about the brother of the governing party’s candidate, Park Geun-hye, with “an aim of blocking her election.”
Ms. Park won the election by a narrow margin and was inaugurated in February. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The previous government also pursued criminal indictments of television producers and bloggers on charges of defaming political figures and disseminating false information — a practice that international human rights groups have denounced for creating a chilling effect among government critics.
“My crime was raising questions those in power don’t like,” Mr. Choo, 39, said in a recent interview. “They hate me like a cockroach and want to squash me.” A court is scheduled to decide on Tuesday whether to allow his arrest.
Mr. Choo skyrocketed to national fame as a co-host of the satirical political podcast “Naneun Ggomsuda,” or “I Am a Petty-Minded Creep.” The name invokes a derisive nickname for the prior president, Lee Myun-bak. Started in 2011, the show raised allegations of wrongdoing against some of the country’s religious, economic and political leaders. It became one of the world’s most downloaded political podcasts from Apple’s iTunes store, avidly followed by South Koreans who had lost trust in mainstream news media, much as young Americans embraced “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”
The show was suspended after the December election, and prosecutors accused another co-host, Kim Ou-joon, of staying abroad to avoid an investigation on charges similar to what Mr. Choo faced.
Mr. Choo works for a leading newsweekly SisaIN. In his articles and podcast ahead of the December election, he revisited a little-known 2011 case in which a son of a cousin of Ms. Park’s was found dead in a mountain park in Seoul, the nation’s capital. Another cousin of Ms. Park’s was found hanging from a tree. The police concluded that he had killed the first man and then committed suicide.
In his reports, Mr. Choo cited a legal dispute between Ms. Park’s brother, Park Ji-man, and his brother-in-law revolving around the brother-in-law’s accusations that Mr. Park had plotted to kill him and had hired as a hit man the Park relative found dead. (The brother-in-law, the husband of the Parks’ estranged younger sister, lost the case and served time in prison for slandering Mr. Park.)
Mr. Choo’s reports raised questions about the police investigation and cited the suspicion raised by the brother-in-law and his lawyer that the killing in the mountain park might have had something to do with a plot to block the victim from testifying for them. They also raised the possibility that the man who the police said hanged himself might have been killed.
Mr. Park sued Mr. Choo in December on charges of spreading false rumors to influence the presidential election. That set off the investigation by the prosecutors.
International free-speech advocates — including Reporters Without Borders and Frank La Rue, the special rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression for the United Nations — have voiced concerns about a lack of tolerance for dissent in South Korea, where defamation is a criminal offense.
Lee Jae-jeong, Mr. Choo’s lawyer, said of the possibility of his client’s arrest, “I don’t think this kind of thing can happen except in a backward country ruled by an authoritarian government bent on stifling freedom of expression.”
Park Kyung-sin, a professor of law at Korea University here, said filing a criminal indictment against people accused of defaming public figures with false rumors and then trying to arrest and hold them before any trial went against “international human rights standards.”
Such prosecutions, Professor Park said, hamper the role of the news media as a public watchdog, particularly since defendants accused of defamation are required to prove that their allegations are true.
Many conservative South Koreans accuse the co-hosts of “I Am a Petty-Minded Creep” of using the mantle of satire to broadcast irresponsible statements, commit character assassination and promote political cronyism.
But at times, the show has sniffed out major news. It was among the first outlets to discuss suspicions that the country’s intelligence agency was involved in a secret online campaign to try to discredit opposition candidates in the December election.
Last month, the police announced that at least two government intelligence agents had been involved in such an operation. Prosecutors have since expanded the investigation,raiding the headquarters of the spy agency.
Korean refuse illegal President Elect Ms. Park bcoz National Election Commission counted votes illegally !
ReplyDeleteSouth Korean Presidential Election held on Dec. 19, 2012. Korea National Election Commission count votes illegally. Korean demand for manual counting or even re-counting, which is their constitutional right. Please Support the Korean People of Democracy with Free and Fair Election So that they can decide their own future for Democracy. Recount NOW!
Step down illegal President Elect Ms. Park !