On the 13th, the prosecution investigating allegations that false reports damaged President Yoon Seok-yeol's reputation during the last presidential election summoned a NewsTapa reporter who reported the 'Kim Man-bae false interview.'
According to the legal community on the 13th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's special investigation team for 'presidential election interference and public opinion manipulation' (led by Kang Baek-shin, head of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1) summoned NewsTapa reporter Han Sang-jin (50) as a suspect for questioning that morning.
The prosecution is reportedly questioning reporter Han about the specific circumstances of the report on the 'Kim Man-bae - Shin Hak-rim interview' just before the presidential election, the content and timing of the report, and whether there was any coordination with external personnel of NewsTapa.
When Han entered the prosecution office around 9:55 a.m. and met with the press, he emphasized, "I still believe our report was close to the truth." When asked why the part where Kim Man-bae corrected that "it was not Yoon Seok-yeol but the staff who made coffee for Jo Woo-hyung" was edited out of the report, he replied, "Some editing and excerpting are inevitable," adding, "Whether Yoon Seok-yeol or the staff made the coffee was not important then, and it is not important at all now."
Han continued, "The core issue is whether the Central Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office covered up the Busan Savings Bank investigation," and said, "If Yoon Seok-yeol did not make the coffee but the staff did, does that make the case disappear? The frame of 'Yoon Seok-yeol coffee' itself is a malicious and problematic claim."
Regarding the allegation that NewsTapa reported the interview despite prior knowledge of money transactions between former expert Shin Hak-rim and Kim, he flatly denied it as "an absurd claim." He said, "I have no intention of cooperating sincerely with the investigation. I will just fight," and added, "I don't know if they can use investigative authority so recklessly."
Reporter Han is accused of defaming President Yoon by reporting the 'Kim Man-bae - Shin Hak-rim interview' on March 6 last year, three days before the presidential election, violating the Information and Communications Network Act. At that time, Han reported that President Yoon, while serving as head of the Investigation Division 2 of the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, covered up the investigation of Jo Woo-hyung, a 'loan broker,' during the Busan Savings Bank case. The prosecution considers this content to be false and a deliberate false report. Earlier, the prosecution searched NewsTapa's office on September 14 and also searched the residence of Kim Yong-jin, NewsTapa's CEO, on the 6th.
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