Reported for including nude footage in documentary
Charged with violation of Sexual Violence Punishment Act... Transferred to Western District Prosecutors' Office
The producer (PD) responsible for the Netflix documentary "I Am God," which deals with allegations of sexual crimes by Jeong Myeong-seok (age 79), the president of the Christian Gospel Mission (commonly known as JMS), has been referred to the prosecution on charges of violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act for posting nude videos of church members without their consent.
On the 16th, Yonhap News and others reported that the Mapo Police Station in Seoul recently sent PD A to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office on charges of violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act. "I Am God," released on Netflix in March last year, is an eight-part documentary covering the stories of four individuals impersonating God and their victims. Episodes 1 to 3 of this documentary exposed Jeong Myeong-seok's sexual crimes. The documentary features nude videos of female JMS members without mosaics.
Mr. A stated that he obscured the faces of the church members so they could not be identified and that the videos were included for public interest purposes. However, the police, who received the complaint, considered this an illegal act, and the prosecution accepted the case on the 14th. A police official explained, "We have determined that there are no justifications such as lawful acts or self-defense that would negate the illegality."
The charges applied to Mr. A are under Article 14, Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act. Paragraph 2 of Article 14 stipulates that anyone who distributes or reproduces images or copies of a body that may arouse sexual desire or shame without the consent of the subject shall be punished by imprisonment of up to seven years or a fine of up to 50 million won. Paragraph 3 states that if such distribution is done using an information and communication network for profit without the subject's consent, the offender shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than three years. The same law also includes provisions that impose imprisonment of up to three years or fines of up to 30 million won for possession, purchase, storage, or viewing of such images or copies. However, the police reportedly judged that it is difficult to consider 'intentionality' on the part of documentary viewers. Mr. A received a presidential citation in December last year in the category of broadcasting and video industry development merit for the documentary.
Before the documentary aired, in February last year, JMS filed a provisional injunction to ban the broadcast, arguing that including ongoing trial content in the documentary violates the presumption of innocence and infringes on religious freedom. However, the court dismissed the injunction, stating, "MBC and Netflix appear to have collected a substantial amount of objective and subjective materials and based the program on them." The court also explained, "The JMS leader is a public figure who has caused significant social upheaval in the past, and the program's content cannot be said to be unrelated to matters of public interest."
Jeong Myeong-seok was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2009 for sexually assaulting a church member and was released after serving his sentence. However, from February 2018 to September 2021, immediately after his release, he was re-arrested in October 2022 on charges of forcibly molesting or quasi-raping a total of 17 times, including a female church member of Hong Kong nationality, at a training center located in Geumsan-gun, Chungnam Province. Jeong, who was sentenced to 23 years in prison in the first trial, is currently undergoing an appeal trial.
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