Citizen Group Files Defamation Complaint Against Kim Geon-hee
[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, who posted a manipulated 'Kim Gun-hee recording' on his SNS and quickly deleted it, has been reported to the prosecution on charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act.
The civic group Action to Restore the Rule of Law (Beopse-ryeon) announced on the 26th that it would report former Minister Cho to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office for violating the Public Official Election Act and defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.
Beopse-ryeon representative Lee Jong-bae claimed, "Former Minister Cho has consistently shown a very hostile stance toward Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, and his spouse Kim Gun-hee. With the intention of preventing their election, he posted false information on SNS to disadvantage candidate Yoon."
He continued, "Even if the false post was removed quickly, many people would have seen it, causing Kim to suffer irreparable and severe defamation, and candidate Yoon to be negatively affected in the election outcome."
He added, "This is a retaliatory character assassination disguised as verification, and the method is very cunning. Posting false information briefly and deleting it to escape legal consequences by claiming no intent is a trick."
A photo that former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk posted on his SNS and then deleted. / Photo by Twitter capture
Earlier, on the 24th, former Minister Cho posted on his Twitter account a post titled 'Kim Gun-hee's thoughts on teenagers and people in their 20s' along with a screenshot of a video. The post was revealed to be 'fake news' with fabricated content not present in the actual recording.
The subtitles included disparaging remarks about teenagers and people in their 20s, such as "You saw how trashy Korean teenagers and people in their 20s are. It's really funny. They're idiots, honestly."
Former Minister Cho recognized that the photo was fake news and deleted the post shortly after uploading it. Later, he shared an article about the People Power Party reporting the netizen who manipulated the photo.
On the 26th, Cho explained to Media Today, "Someone sent me the (photo), so I posted it, then confirmed it was fake news and immediately deleted it, and replaced it with an article stating that the post was fake news."
Meanwhile, the netizen who first created and distributed the photo on a community site apologized on the 17th, saying, "I couldn't control my excitement and did it with satirical intent, but it seems to have ultimately caused hurt to Kim and others."
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