Unnecessary Argument over Defamation

For some reasons, a judicial branch of South Korean government decided to protect freedom of speech. Seoul Central Regional Court on Thursday found former bureau chief of Japanese Sankei Shimbun, Tatsuya Kato, not guilty on his article introducing a rumor that South Korean President Park Geun-hye had been with a man on the day tragic ship accident killed a number of Korean passengers in April 2014. Reviewing the history of the case, this indictment must be proved to be unnecessary.

Kato ran an article on the homepage of Sankei with headline of “President Park Geun-hye was missing on the day the ship sank – meeting whom?” The article was introducing rumors in South Korea, including a column article of Chosun Ilbo newspaper about her relationship with a man, and attributed those confusions to lame-ducking of Park administration. South Korean prosecutors indicted Kato with a charge of defamation after receiving accusation from civil groups.

While concluding Kato’s story as baseless, the court decided that the article was introducing public interest to the readers and had no intention to defame Park. “Even if the revealed were rumors, freedom of speech must broadly be guaranteed,” said the court. Japanese Asahi Shimbun questioned why Park had not stopped the prosecutors indict Kato.

The decision still has some obscure points. At the beginning of reading judgment, Chief Judge revealed a letter from South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which requested generous decision with diplomatic consideration. “We are asked to deal with the case in perspective by various people of Japan. Considering that December 18 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of South Korea-Japan Basic Treaty, we hope this kind of request to be sincerely considered,” said the letter. That unusual announcement invited a suspect on intervention of the executive branch to judicial decision.

There has been a tendency of putting pressure on media in South Korea. Japanese Mainichi Shimbun listed the cases in which South Korean President’s Office accused domestic media with suspect of defamation. They included a report of Korean Christian Broadcasting System that indicated Park’s visiting for mourning was a performance or an article of Segye Ilbo that introduced a document revealing involvement of Park’s close aide in personnel’s transfer. South Korean government has been oppressive on freedom of speech.

While the case on Kato can be concluded as unnecessary, here’s another question: Was Kato’s article necessary? It is up to Sankei which news they select. But, it is still unclear what did Sankei or Kato want to say with the article. What was the value of the article to report, while harming the sentiment of South Korean people? Japanese people experienced the same kind of sentiment when British Broadcasting Corporation introduced Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who suffered from two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as “the most unfortunate person in the world” in 2010. Generosity matters.