Korean man wins defamation case against portals
2009/05/08 12:54Daum Communications, NHN, SK Communications and Yahoo Korea lost an appeal of an earlier case and were held responsible by the Supreme Court of Korea for articles posted on their sites that defamed a Korean man:
Kim filed the defamation suit against the portals saying he suffered grave mental anguish caused by negative comments. He argued that the portals were negligent in not controlling malicious and defamatory comments against him on their Web sites. The portals in 2005 carried news stories about Kim’s ex-girlfriend, who committed suicide after breaking up with him.
The Hankyoreh: Courts open up South Korean Web sites to liability charges
While the recent not guilty verdict in the Minerva case may help to limit new online defamation laws under consideration:
Under the provisions, a person accused of ``insulting'' others on the Internet and other telecommunications network could be punished by a prison term of up to three years or a 30 million won fine.
However, the legislative move may be put on the back burner following the acquittal of Park Dae-sung, or Minerva, who the GNP claim would have been the biggest violator of the law had it existed.
While prosecutors decided to appeal the recent Minerva case. A group of authors have also published a new textbook that they will hope schools use to educate schoolchildren on online ethics:
Dr. Yoo Byeong-ryeol, a professor at Seoul National University of Education and the lead author of the textbook, told The Dong-A Ilbo over the phone, “In the past, we put little emphasis on data authenticity in the Internet ethics section. In the wake of the nationwide protests against U.S. beef, however, the importance of authenticity has significantly risen.”
“We’ve focused on teaching elementary students not to blindly accept information they get on the Web.”
