Repeated Convictions for Spreading False Information About Colleagues
Key Issues: Truthfulness and Publicity
Defamation Crimes on the Rise
In the past five years, the number of defamation cases has steadily increased. In particular, courts have consecutively issued guilty verdicts regarding unverified gossip and the spread of false information within workplaces. If there is a possibility of dissemination to multiple people, defamation charges can be sufficiently established, so caution is required.
According to the legal community on the 17th, the Seoul Eastern District Court last month sentenced A (34), an employee of a major telecommunications company, to a fine of 4 million won on charges of defamation. In March 2019, A told a colleague in the company’s smoking room, “B had a relationship with an employee from another branch, got pregnant, and secretly took a day off yesterday without her husband knowing to go alone to the hospital for an abortion.”
In April 2019, A also spread false information to another colleague within the company, saying, “B was fooling around with the employees and secretly went alone to have an abortion, possibly because she got pregnant without her brother-in-law knowing.” It was confirmed that B was not pregnant with another man’s child and had undergone an abortion after consulting with her husband. A’s side argued that it was an expression of opinion rather than factual assertion and that it was a private conversation with a specific person with no possibility of dissemination, but the court did not accept this.
There is also a case where a person was sentenced to imprisonment for continuously posting malicious posts on the anonymous workplace community ‘Blind.’ In October last year, the Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced C (29), an employee of a major law firm, to 1 year and 6 months in prison on charges of defamation and intimidation under the Information and Communications Network Act.
C suspected an affair between her ex-boyfriend, a lawyer, and a secretary and decided to defame them. C posted on Blind, “Based on a secret recording made by a secretary at a drinking party,” claiming that lawyers and secretaries were engaging in illicit affairs and had many scandalous private lives.
She also claimed, “Our company is like the animal kingdom,” alleging that male lawyers and female secretaries flirted with each other and had extramarital relationships. She posted photos of three lawyers and two secretaries’ faces in the comments. C also engaged in intimidation by asking via messenger whether the content was true and leaving notes on office desks.
According to Supreme Court precedents, in defamation cases, the factual assertion is a concept opposed to expressions of opinion that involve value judgments or evaluations. Even if reports, rumors, or third-party statements are cited, if the expression implies the existence of facts when viewed as a whole, it is considered a factual assertion.
Furthermore, publicity means a state where an unspecified or numerous people can recognize the information. Even if facts are asserted individually to a small number of people, charges are recognized if there is a possibility that the recipient may disseminate the facts to an unspecified or large number of people.
Defamation crimes continue to increase. According to the National Police Agency crime statistics, the number of offenses related to “honor” was 27,695 in 2018, 28,885 in 2019, 29,631 in 2020, 30,814 in 2021, and 34,906 in 2022.
Online defamation is becoming particularly serious. Violations of the “Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc. (defamation)” were 6,641 cases in 2018, 7,594 in 2019, 9,140 in 2020, 11,354 in 2021, and 12,370 in 2022.
Professor Changhyun Lee of the Graduate School of Law at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies said, “In the past, people would just let gossip slide, but now that lawsuits are actively filed, the number of cases has increased. Even if defamation involves factual assertion, if there is a possibility of dissemination, it can be established even if told to one or two people, so caution is necessary.”
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