Another Journalist, Woo Jong-chang, Jailed for Libel, Judge Says Cho Kuk Defamed, Rule of Law Continues to Crumble in South Korea
2020-7-19, Tara O
Another journalist, Woo Jong-chang (우종창, 63), is jailed in South Korea after being convicted of the “crime” of “libel” for announcing “false information.” On July 17, 2020, Judge Ma Seong-yeong (마성영) (with judges Kim Young-hwan 김영환 and Yoon Jeong-un 윤정운 on the team) of the Seoul Northern District Criminal Court sentenced journalist Woo Jong-chang to eight months in jail for libel and “Violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communication Network Utilization and Information Protection” and imprisoned him. When the sentence was announced, a woman sitting in the court yelled out, “Is this a dictatorship? How can this happen?”
Judge Ma Seong-yeong stated, “As a journalist, he did not even go through the process of confirming the minimum facts and forced false information through broadcasting.” The judge’s statement does not reflect the evidence of Woo Jong-chang’s actions described below. Woo submitted all related documents of his investigative efforts as evidence to the court. Judge Ma further stated, “The content of the broadcast (of Mr. Woo) is very serious and it could lead to the misunderstanding that the Blue House was trying to intervene in the trial (of President Park Geun-hye).”
In justifying his sentencing, Judge Ma said he took into account that Woo was not forgiven by the “victims” Cho Kuk (조국) and Kim Se-yoon (김세윤), despite defaming them, and that Woo did not “repent” his “crime.” This kind of statement seems reminiscent of a sham court, rather than a court of an advanced industrialized country with a constitution based on liberal democratic system, which includes rule of law and the separation of powers.
Judge Ma Seong-yeong’s July 17, 2020 decision is in contrast to the Supreme Court decision on July 16, 2020 that found Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myeong, Democratic Party of Korea, not guilty of pronouncing false information. Lee was charged with announcing false information when Lee was asked a question during an election candidate debate about forcibly committing his brother to an insane asylum after his brother criticized him. Chief Justice Kim Myung-Soo stated, “if the court finds one liable for making statements without taking into consideration the background and context, then candidates and others cannot conduct more lively discussions due to the fear of being held liable.”
Cho Kuk, who was the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House, filed criminal charges against Woo Jong-chang for libel on February 14, 2019, almost a year after Woo said on his YouTube channel the topic of Cho having dinner with Judge Kim Se-yoon and a third person, based on a tip he received. (7:47) When the police summoned Woo in early March 2019, Woo did not even know what the exact criminal charges were; the only part the police revealed was that it had to do with YouTube and judge Kim Se-yoon. (1:08)
On March 1, 2018, Woo referred to a tip-off on his Youtube channel. Woo stated, “This tip-off of course has not been verified as truth yet, it has not been verified as truth, but it is so shocking that I’ll introduce to you what the tip-off was and then explain the efforts I’m making to try to verify the information. The tip-off goes like this: Cho Kuk, the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House, sometime during January to early February 2018, met and had dinner with Seoul Central District Criminal Court Judge Kim Se-yoon at a formal Korean food (한정식) restaurant near the Blue House. The faces of Judge Kim Se-yoon and Senior Secretary Cho Kuk are well known through TV and newspapers. And there was a third person, who is not well-known. That was the content of the tip off. It’s a tip off, so I have not verified it yet” (5:00) Contrary to what Judge Ma said, Woo indeed made efforts to verify by sending letters asking if they met. The letter, dated March 1, 2018 was sent to both the Blue House spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom (김의겸), and to judge Kim.
Why is the meeting between Senior Secretary Cho and Judge Kim important? It is because of the positions of these personnel and the timing–it was before a criminal trial decision was made. Kim Se-Yoon was the judge in the initial trial of Park Geun-hye’s criminal charge case (which followed her impeachment). Cho Kuk was the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House, a position that oversees issues regarding the judges, prosecutors, and the police, including intelligence and investigative information collection and management. Given such power, Cho Kuk’s meeting with a deciding judge, if occurred, is problematic. If they met prior to the court decision date of April 6, 2018, or discussed the trial even without the dinner, then it is possible that the three discussed the Park Geun-hye trial and could have influenced the outcome; thus the Blue House trying to intervene in the Park Geun-hye trial cannot be ruled out. Jailing someone without evidence in itself is unjust, and that alone is a violation of human rights. If the Blue House influenced the outcome, then it is even more of a problem, as it damages the rule of law and the separation of power even more. Thus, Woo stated the public has the right to know and he, as a journalist, is taking an interest in the matter and covering it for the public interest. (7:26)
Given the rash of libel suits and charges, which have surged under the Moon Jae-in administration, Woo also discussed the cases in which such discussions are allowed. Woo said in South Korea, if one defames another person, legal actions can be taken; however, “if it is related to public interest, especially if it’s the truth, but even if it doesn’t have the proof of truth, if the person who discusses it have considerable reasons to believe it is true, then it is not illegal, according to the previous Supreme Court decision.” (7:56) Thus, Woo discussed it, emphasizing the public interest.
In a YouTube broadcast on June 5, 2020, Woo discussed about the third person (Woo did not name the identity initially), who turned out to be Choe Kang-wook (최강욱), a lawyer with a Minbyun background.
It turned out that when Choe Kang-wook was working on his master’s thesis at Seoul National University, Cho Kuk was Choe’s thesis supervising professor. (5:40) Choe also stated at the court that he and Cho Kuk have been close friends for 30 years. (5:49) Choe Kang-wook and Kim Se-yoon were in the same class year (entered in 1986), and Kim also knows Choe’s wife.
Choi Kang-wook was a board member of the Foundation for Broadcast Culture (방송문화진흥회), the corporation that runs MBC broadcasting, until 2018. Afterwards, Choe became Secretary to the President for Public Office Discipline at the Blue House on September 7, 2018 until March 2020. One of the key responsibilities of that position is to vet senior personnel for nomination, which includes scandal-ridden Cho Kuk when Cho was nominated to be the Justice Minister. As such, Choe failed to do his job properly; such a candidate with corruption, abuse of authority, and a long list of other allegations and questionable activities, should not have been nominated for a ministerial position. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office charged that Choe Kang-wook also provided a fake internship certificate for Cho Kuk’s son for his law school application. What this helps reveal is the type of relations that Choe Kang-wook and Cho Kuk had. After the April 2020 General Election, Choe became a National Assemblyman as a proportional representative of the Open Democratic Party, which he now heads.
Choe Kang-wook was called as a witness and was asked at the court whether he met, talked on the phone, or texted to exchange communications with judge Kim Se-yoon between May 2017 to April 6, 2018 (the sentencing date for Park Geun-hye). Choe initially answered that when he saw (in the news) that Kim was the presiding judge for Park Geun-hye’s case, he only sent a short text message encouraging him, but they did not talk on the phone. (7:04) Kim Se-yoon, however, contradicted Choe’s witness statement. Woo’s lawyer asked whether Kim, who was also on the witness stand, had any conversations with Choe Kang-wook regarding the Park Geun-hye trial. (9:20) Kim replied that during a conversation, it is possible that they said “are you working on that (Park Geun-hye) trial?,” but no conversation beyond that. (9:42) When Woo’s lawyer asked again directly, Kim then said, “While talking on the telephone, such (light) conversation could have occurred.” (10:20) Thus, Kim’s answer of “talking on the phone” and Choe’s reply of “text only, no phone conversation” do not match. Woo stated that all these witness testimonies are recorded at the court during the hearing. (11:38)
Choe also seemed to know or have influence on keeping Park Geun-hye jailed beyond the original 6-month period while she was on trial. Since the trial continued and the verdict has not been reached, Park should have been released from jail. On October 13, 2017, Judge Kim Se-yoon signed an additional arrest warrant for Park, which prevented Park from being released from jail. Prior to the judge’s issung, however, Choe announced on a podcast (Jeong Bong-ju’s Podcast) that day that he is a very good friend of Judge Kim Se-yoon, and that he was certain that Kim Se-yoon will issue an additional arrest warrant for Park, and if he Kim does not, then he will bother Kim. (7:44) This recording on YouTube was also submitted to the court.
With Judge Kim se-yoon, Woo and others have wondered why Kim meted out such a harsh sentence of 24 years to Park Geun-hye for this case, especially when there was no evidence. For comparison, on June 3, 2020, former Kimpo City Council Chairman Yoo Seung-hyeon (유승현), Democratic Party of Korea, who killed his wife by beating her to death with a golf club, received a 7-year prison sentence at appeals, which was reduced from an initial 15 years. In another case, Son Jong-Woo (손정우), who was convicted of running “Welcome to Video,” one of the world’s largest child pornography websites that distributed over 250,000 disturbing videos and who was wanted by the U.S. government for prosecution, received only 18 months in prison.
Furthermore, the investigations of meddling in mayoral elections in Ulsan, Yangsan, Changwon, and Sachon by the Blue House and the corruption case against Cho Kuk and his family have come to a screeching halt after President Moon Jae-in forced the appointment of Choo Me-ae as the Justice Minister.
Thus to understand Judge Kim Se-yoon’s motive in giving such a harsh sentence, it is important for the public to know whether there was influence from the Blue House. Woo asked the judge for a forensic analysis of the mobile phone records of the three–Cho Kuk, Kim Se-yoon, and Choe Kang-wook to see if it shows whether the three phones’ locations were near each other at a restaurant near the Blue House at the same time between January and early February of 2018. (9:01) Woo also asked for CCTV footage of the area in the vicinity of the formal Korean food restaurant (there are two formal Korean food restaurants) near the Blue House around the same time period. (10:26) Apparently, that request went unanswered.
Woo Jong-chang has been a journalist since 1982, with 23 years at Monthly Chosun. Journalist Woo Jong-chang is perhaps one of a few people, who has read a large portion of the massive amounts of the investigative documents, court records (~20,000 pages), books, and other materials regarding the impeachment and the subsequent trials of Park Geun-hye since October 2016. Based on these materials, Woo has revealed Park’s innocence and the unfair and unjust trials on his YouTube channel Lies and Truths. He has been covering this issue in depth with meticulous details, making over 275 videos, and sharing with the public his discoveries. He has also written 2-volume books on this topic called The Mountain of Lies that Buried the President (대통령을 묻어버린 거짓의 산). What he has discovered in these documents was vastly different from what has been reported in the main media. For more on Park’s impeachment and subsequent cases, see here and here and here.
In his Final Affidavit submitted dated June 9, 2020 (embedded at the bottom), he stated:
The President Park Geun-hye incident was not objective and logical based on evidence, but rife with assertions and conjecture. It was done by a portion of the mass agitated by the media’s mad reporting. In other words, it was a sham court.
I felt that as a veteran media reporter, I must try to correct the distorted Park Geun-hye incident, which was created by the media, so on October 12, 2017, I created a YouTube channel ‘Lies and Truth’ and started to make videos on the topic ‘The Mountains of Lies that Buried the President.’
In the middle of the initial trial, all of a sudden, all kinds of strange documents came out of the Senior Secretary of Civil Affairs Office of the Blue House in the Moon administration. As the expiration of the statute of limitations approached (so Park Geun-hye has to be released from jail at the expiration of the initial arrest warrant), President’s Chief of Staff held an emergency briefing announcing the discovery of the Sewol Ferry coverup documents at the Blue House (implying the documents were left by the Park Geun-hye administration and the new administration found them at the Blue House).
As I watched a series of such incidents, naturally, I became suspicious that perhaps the current administration’s Blue House may be influencing the President Park Guen-hye incident to some degree.” It was at this time and with the sentencing date not too far out that I received the tip-off that Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk, lawyer Choe Kang-wook, and judge Kim Se-yoon met at a formal Korean food restaurant near the Blue House for dinner.
I sent the Blue House representative a questionnaire about whether it occurred or not, but received no replies prior to the YouTube broadcasting. On one hand, I introduced the content of the tip off, and stated that if true, the meeting between Cho Kuk and Kim Se-yoon was inappropriate, and on the other hand, in order to continue to pursue the truth, that I would need the help of the viewers. I did not defame Cho Kuk by publicly revealing false information through information and communication networks with the purpose of slandering the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk.
I broadcasted on the principle that public officials’ ethics and integrity, and whether or not their performance of their duties are just and proper, should be open to the citizens for monitoring and criticism. I gladly work to reveal the truth about the mountain of lies that buried President Park Geun-hye, and will continue to work to leave records for history.
The last journalists, who also were convicted of the “crime” of libel and jailed were Byun Hee-Jai (변희재) and Hwang Ui-won (황의원), who also worked to reveal the truth about the falsehoods about Park Geun-hye’s impeachment and subsequent trials; in their case, it was the false “tablet PC” story that led to her impeachment. It appears that in-depth expertise and the revelation of truths and facts about Park Geun-hye’s impeachment and subsequent trials are too inconvenient for the Moon administration. Judge Ma Seong-yeong should be held accountable for his biased ruling, but the problem runs much deeper.
The Moon administration is already being condemned by international human rights organizations for suppressing freedom of expression of the defectors and defector organizations. The list of human rights violations and unconstitutional and illiberal actions of the Moon government grows daily.
YouTube References:
2018-3-1, #59, “President Park Geun-hye is Innocent, the evidence are in the records”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xlglEHWJME&feature=youtu.be
2019-3-8, #183, “Police Summon, Senior Secretary Cho Kuk is the Accuser”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7t1H8wgo0g&feature=youtu.be
2020-6-5, #255, “Judge Kim Se-yoon Who Presided over the Initial Trial, During the President’s Trial, talked on the Phone with Choe Kang-wook”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lccfa0Hs8kM&feature=youtu.be
2020-6-9, #257, “President’s Court Trial Documents Delivered to President (Park) by USB, Woo Jong-chang’s Final Affidavit posted on Website (http://truepark1.com/)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=140ZIKOq_7o&feature=youtu.be
