CONTENTS
- 1. Defamation Civil Litigation, a Case in Which a News Broadcasting Accident Became the Issue
- - Defamation Civil Litigation, the Relevant Legal Principles
- 2. Defamation Civil Litigation, the Court's Determination
- 3. Defamation Civil Litigation, Daeryun's Strategy
1. Defamation Civil Litigation, a Case in Which a News Broadcasting Accident Became the Issue
The plaintiff who filed the defamation civil litigation was the victim of a news broadcasting accident.
On August 10, 2023, while a news program was reporting on the "Bundang Seohyeon Station knife-attack incident," the plaintiff's photograph was mistakenly broadcast among the content related to Choi Won-jong, the perpetrator of that incident.
The plaintiff was a person with no direct connection to this incident, and the plaintiff's photograph was broadcast for eleven seconds.
The plaintiff claimed that the defendant (the broadcaster), intentionally or negligently, broadcast the plaintiff's photograph without authorization, thereby damaging the plaintiff's reputation and infringing the plaintiff's portrait rights, and sought 300 million won in consolation money (solatium) on this basis.
Defamation Civil Litigation, the Relevant Legal Principles
Defamation that constitutes a tort under the Civil Act means an act that, by publicly alleging facts, infringes the objective evaluation that a person receives in society with respect to personal values such as character, virtue, reputation, and credit.
Whether the content of a television news report contains matter that damages the reputation of a specific person must be judged on the premise of the objective content of the news report in question, together with the manner in which an ordinary viewer encounters the report with ordinary attention.
Supreme Court precedent provides that the overall impression that the reported content gives to viewers, considered comprehensively in light of the overall flow of the report, the manner of composing the images, the ordinary meaning of the words used, and the way the phrases are connected, must also serve as a criterion for that judgment.
2. Defamation Civil Litigation, the Court's Determination
As to the defamation civil litigation, the court dismissed the plaintiff's claim for the following reasons.
The plaintiff was a senior member of the press who had also served as a presidential office spokesperson, among other positions, and, immediately before this broadcasting accident, had been nominated as Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission and was continuing to make statements and take public actions by stepping forward into the arena of public debate on the plaintiff's own initiative.
The court found that the plaintiff could be regarded as a public figure who is expected to tolerate a certain degree of social criticism, and that whether the plaintiff's social evaluation had been lowered by this broadcasting accident must be judged cautiously in comparison with a private individual.
This report clearly referred to Choi Won-jong and consisted of an analysis of his crime and mental illness, and there was no separate mention of the plaintiff other than this photograph.
In this defamation civil litigation, the court determined that, considering that at the time of this broadcasting accident Choi Won-jong's personal details, such as his age and likeness, had already been disclosed and were widely known to the general public through related articles, that the plaintiff, being a public figure, had already had the plaintiff's likeness exposed in the press, that in this photograph the plaintiff was wearing formal attire with the National Assembly building as the background, and that immediately after this broadcasting accident of about eleven seconds an interview video and footage of the crime showing Choi Won-jong's likeness continued to be broadcast, it did not appear that viewers would have mistaken the plaintiff's likeness for that of Choi Won-jong or recognized the content of this report as being about the plaintiff.
The court also noted that, immediately after the related report ended, the anchor's notice followed at once, stating, “When we delivered the report by reporter J that you just saw, the background image behind the anchor was shown incorrectly. We ask for your understanding on this point,” so that, from the standpoint of an ordinary viewer, it could be easily recognized that the plaintiff was a person entirely unrelated to this report, and on this basis the court dismissed the plaintiff's claim.
3. Defamation Civil Litigation, Daeryun's Strategy
In a defamation civil litigation, the cause of action does not arise merely because negative content spreads.
For defamation to be recognized in law, requirements such as the public allegation of facts, the dissemination of false facts, and the infringement of an objective evaluation must be satisfied.
For a defamation civil litigation to be established, it is important to prepare accurate evidence that can prove the factual circumstances of the case and the resulting harm.
The 🔗civil litigation attorneys of Daeryun Law Firm LLP analyze the legal reasoning systematically and gather evidence, providing dedicated, close representation to protect the rights and interests of their clients.
