Freedom of Speech Under Attack: Koo Ja-Woong, a YouTubers In Jail for 6 Months for “Defaming” Powerful Media Executive Sohn Suk-hee

2021-9-17, Tara O

On March 19, 2021, Koo Ja-woong (구자웅) was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment for defamation by the Seoul Northern District Court (서울북부지부).  Ku is a YouTuber with his own channel Pacman TV (팩맨tv).   The Lawsuit was brought by a powerful media executive Sohn Suk-hee (손석희) of JTBC.  Koo apologized and posted it on his YouTube channel, but Sohn would not accept the apology.  Koo appealed the case, but the judge rejected his appeal on August 17, 2021, and executed the prison sentence.  (0:23)

What was the defamation?  On January 27, 2019, Ku raised the question on his YouTube channel whether Sohn Suk-hee, the CEO of JTBC, and Ahn Na-gyeong (안나경), a TV  announcer of JTBC, were having an affair.  In his decision to put Koo in jail, the judge explained that the major media and other YouTube channels did not raise the suspicion of Sohn-Ahn affair, and only Koo raised the issue.  Judge’s claim is false, since the suspicion about Sohn’s relationship with the woman was widely reported at that time.  More importantly, another YouTuber noted that the court suggesting that Koo must think like everyone else, and that he should not have independent thoughts, makes one question whether the court is a people’s court in a totalitarian system. (0:24)

There  was wide media coverage of Sohn’s scandal at that time, which began with Sohn’s hit-and-run in a secluded, unpaved parking lot in Gwacheon City on the outskirts of Seoul on a Sunday night in 2017, after Sohn hit a tow truck and drove off.  The tow truck driver followed Sohn’s car for about a mile when they all stopped at a red light, and the truck driver quickly went up to Sohn’s car and knocked on his window.  Sohn ignored him and drove off again.  Eventually, Sohn stopped and got out of the car, after which they agreed that Sohn would pay the tow truck driver.

On August 28, 2018, Kim Woong (김웅), a freelance reporter, formerly of KBS, who had had a close relationship with Sohn, received a tip from another reporter that Sohn was caught (by the tow truck driver) after Sohn’s hit and run from the secluded parking lot, and that there was a woman in his car.  On August 28, 2018, Kim met Sohn and told Sohn that he received a tip about Sohn’s hit and run as well as the presence of a woman in his car at that time and asked Sohn to give him one reason not to publish the matter.  Sohn replied that if it gets published, then it could be used by those who wanted to attack him.  Sohn then provided his receipt for his payment to the tow truck driver. 

Kim stated, “Protecting you in light of our social realities is also valuable enough, so I will not write it. But I still have reasonable doubts.”  When Sohn asked about Kim’s business situation, which was not going well, Kim asked about JTBC’s hiring process.  It appears Kim was spurned and got upset, and Sohn tried to placate him by inviting him out, but at the same time, Sohn also assaulted Kim Woong.  Sohn then tried to buy off Kim with money and job, but it failed.  Kim then provided the material to other media companies, after which the story broke out about Sohn’s hit and run and the woman in his car.

When Sohn Suk-hee was asked who the woman in his car in the dark and secluded parking lot was, Sohn claimed that it was his 90-year old mother, and Sohn’s answer was widely reported on January 24, 2019.  Once he put together a large team of lawyers, Sohn then changed his story to say there was no woman in the car.  In April 2020, Sohn was fined  ₩3,000,000 ($2,459; $1: ₩1,220) for assaulting Kim, and on July 8, 2020, Kim received a 6 month jail sentence for attempted blackmail.

Some Netizen Comments (from various YouTube programs):

• How can they imprison powerless individual YouTubers for raising suspicions?  They are so filthy. Why aren’t the suspicions raised by the Left not considered a crime (then)?

• Really crazy…the judges are really crazy and wild.  How can they jail people one after the other for defamation?  They bury the real suspicious activities of Sohn Suk-hee, but jail only those who raise the suspicions.  The judges are just insane…the country is going crazy…(sad face)

• If they the judges are really crazy and wild.  How can they jail people one after the other for defamation?  They bury the real suspicious activities of Sohn Suk-hee, but jail only those who raise the suspicions.  The judges are just insane…the country is going crazy Justice candidate-wannabes.

• What would a man and a woman be doing in the middle of the night at a secluded place?

• Wow, it’s beyond expectations.  Shutting them up through intimidation.  I’m shaking (scared)~~~

• Someday, Sohn Suk-hee should be punished for all his grave sins.

• The (perpetrators) insist on freedom of expression for themselves, but they shut down the other side by saying “fake news” and slapping them with lawsuits.  They think nothing of such hypocrisy.  I’m so tired of it.  It’s one of 10,000 reasons we need a new administration.

Of  is that in South Korea, truth is not a defense for defamation lawsuits.  Ku was one of many who raised the issue of the relationship between Sohn and the woman in his car, especially to highlight the hypocrisy of a man who cultivated an image for himself as a just and highly-moral figure, and who held others to a high moral standard.  Sohn Suk-hee himself is infamous for acts of defamation for broadcasting false stories, including the fake “tablet PC story” that created an extremely negative image of sitting president Park Geun-hye, driving people to candlelight protests in late 2016 that called for ousting  Park.  What resulted in the immediate aftermath was the impeachment of the sitting president without evidence, harsh and unfair investigations of about 1,000 people, jailing of a few hundred officials for doing their jobs, and at least several suicides.  See here for more details.  JTBC, with Sohn, also made false claims about the Sewol Ferry and Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system, after which more protests occurred.  Instead of any accountability for his actions, Sohn was rewarded with a promotion to be the CEO of JTBC.

This is not the first time Sohn sued for libel.  Sohn also brought libel criminal charges against Byun Hee-jai (변희재), Hwang Ui-won (황의원), Lee Woo-hee (이우희), and Oh Moon-young (오문영) journalists at Mediawatch, a small media outlet with its own YouTube channel–all four received jail sentences, and they were carried out for Byun (1 year) and Hwang (6 months).

In South Korea, lawfare using defamation lawsuits continue.  Sohn Suk-hee, a powerful media executive, who helped usher in the current administration in South Korea, sued a one-man Youtuber Koo Ja-woong for defamation, and now Koo is imprisoned.  This is yet another case of suppression of freedom of speech and a violation of human rights in South Korea under the Moon Jae-in administration.