In “liberal” South Korea, three journalists go on trial for criminal defamation
Journalist Byun Hee-jai of Mediawatch has been in jail since May 30, 2018. On the top right corner of the Mediawatch.kr website, it shows how many days Byun has been in jail. Byun was charged with libel for publishing a story that JTBC (a cable TV channel) manipulated the files on a tablet PC to make it appear that Choi Seo-won (Park Geun-hye’s friend, sometimes referred to as Choi Soon-sil) used the tablet. The false news about this tablet that aired on JTBC was crucial to Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. (More on the tablet story later.) The lawsuit claimed that Byun’s remarks slandered JTBC, its then-president of the news section Sohn Suk-hee (손석희), and the JTBC staff, without reasonable grounds. Unlike the U.S., libel is considered a crime in South Korea. It is, however, highly unusual for South Korea to jail a journalist for libel. Furthermore, it is JTBC and Sohn Suk-hee, who have damaged Byun Hee-jai, the other journalists at the Mediawatch, as well as the country with their fabricated tablet story.
Without more evidence, I’m not ready to endorse my friend’s view that JTBC’s story was fabricated, although there are enough questions about the authenticity of the data on the tablet for South Korea’s constitutional court to have refused to admit the tablet and the data into evidence at former president Park Geun-hye’s trial.
On the other hand, it’s my emphatic belief that when the law is used to jail journalists for debating issues of such grave public interest as the evidence used to decide questions of presidential misconduct and impeachment, you can no longer tell the world you have a free society. We will never find the truth of the matter unless such questions can be debated freely and openly. That’s why the most important story in South Korea this year is the state’s assault on free speech and a free press. The second most important story is how many journalists are missing the first story.
You can read Dr. O’s previous OFK post on Byun here.