Jeonju Criminal Attorney | Helping a Client Harmed by Malicious Defamatory Posts to Bring About the Offender's Punishment

The client was a woman in her forties.

She had maintained her marriage for more than ten years, but a deep conflict that could not be mended had settled between the two of them, so the client decided to divorce.

She conveyed to her husband her wish to divorce, but as the divorce litigation took a long time, the two had no choice but to remain legally married for the time being.

Then one day, the client received a link to an internet site from an acquaintance.

The site was a well-known domestic community, and the link the acquaintance sent contained a post written by a community user.

After slowly reading the post, the client could not contain her shock.

This was because she immediately realized that the person described in the post was herself.

The author was none other than her husband, A. The problem was that the post A had written was riddled with falsehoods.

The husband claimed that he was getting divorced because of his wife's infidelity.

The bigger problem was that, through the post, the comments of community users, and the comments left by the husband, the client's identity was exposed all too clearly.

The client therefore decided to file a criminal complaint of defamation against A and sought out the Jeonju criminal attorney.

Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection Article 44-7 (Prohibition of Distribution of Unlawful Information, etc.)

(1) No person shall distribute, through an information and communications network, any information falling under any of the following.

2. Information that, with the intent to defame a person, openly reveals a fact or a false fact and harms another person's reputation

"For the crime of defamation to be established, there must be an act of stating a specific fact that identifies the victim, but it is not necessarily required that a person's name be specified in stating the fact, so even an act of stating a fact without specifying a person's name, where, judging the content of the expression together with the surrounding circumstances, it is possible to recognize that it points to a specific person, constitutes the crime of defamation against that specific person. (see Supreme Court Decision 2014Do1442, September 16, 2014, etc.)

"For online defamation to be established, an 'intent to defame a person' is required, and this requires an intent or purpose to cause harm. Whether there is an intent to defame a person is determined by taking into account all the circumstances relating to the expression itself, such as the content and nature of the stated fact, the scope of the persons to whom the fact was made public, and the manner of the expression, while at the same time comparing and weighing the degree of harm to the reputation that has been or may be harmed by the expression." (see Supreme Court Decision 2006Do848, August 25, 2006, etc.)

During the trial, the husband, A, argued that, looking at his post alone, it could not be clearly known that the other party was the client.

However, this was not true.

The husband had written several posts within that community, and in the course of this he had also revealed his own real name.

Anyone who knew A could not but realize that A's wife mentioned in the post was the client.

A also wrote sentences on social media hinting at the fact that he had posted such writings.

In addition, he replied to all of the comments by netizens speculating about the client's identity, making it possible to infer who the client was.

As a result, a considerable number of the client's actual acquaintances saw the post and identified the client.

The Jeonju criminal attorney noted these circumstances and argued that the client, having been identified online, had suffered significant harm.

As to the circumstances under which he wrote the post about the client, the husband, A, explained that he had heard about the client's infidelity from a trustworthy person and could not but think so.

However, this was not true.

When that acquaintance was called to court and questioned, it turned out that there had never been a single conversation about the client's infidelity.

A could therefore have been sufficiently aware that his claim was false at the time he wrote the post.

On this basis, the Jeonju criminal attorney emphasized that A should be punished.

Even after being indicted for defamation, A maintained a shameless attitude.

The malicious spreading of false statements about the client also continued.

A even expressed his intention to keep posting online going forward.

The client was in a situation where she had suffered severe psychological shock and could hardly carry on with daily life.

The Jeonju criminal attorney pointed out A's attitude and emphasized that he should be found guilty.

The ripple effect of online communities truly exceeds the imagination.

This is because well-known domestic communities have several million users, and recently posts on communities are continuously reproduced through various social media and YouTube.

Before posting anything online, one should always consider that one's post may cause significant harm to someone.

Daeryun Law Firm, to which the Jeonju criminal attorney belongs, provides tailored assistance to clients through a legal team with extensive experience in defamation-related trials.

If you have any questions regarding defamation litigation, we encourage you to knock on the door of Daeryun Law Firm, to which the Jeonju criminal attorney belongs, at any time.