Beopseoryeon Files Additional Complaints Today Against Choi Kang-wook, Hwang Hee-seok, and Informant Ji-mo... Full Disclosure of Channel A Investigation Results

Hwang Hee-seok's Facebook Warning of 'Criminal Complaint and Compensation Lawsuit'

A screenshot of a Facebook post by Hwang Hee-seok, Supreme Council Member of the Open Democratic Party, regarding the complaint filed against him by the civic group Beopse-ryeon.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The civic group that filed a complaint with the prosecution against Ji Mo (55), identified as the whistleblower who reported the alleged ‘collusion between prosecutors and journalists’ to MBC, has announced it will additionally file complaints with the prosecution against Choi Kang-wook, leader of the Open Democratic Party (former Secretary for Public Discipline at the Blue House), and Hwang Hee-seok, Supreme Council member (former Director of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice), along with Ji.

On the 20th, Lee Jong-bae, representative of the civic group Action Alliance for Establishing the Rule of Law (Beopse-ryeon), stated, “This afternoon, we plan to file a complaint with the prosecution against Leader Choi for defamation and obstruction of business due to the dissemination of false information against a Channel A reporter,” adding, “We will also file a complaint against Supreme Council member Hwang and Ji, who were previously reported for obstruction of business by deception, on charges of conspiring with Leader Choi to commit the crime.”

It is known that before the complainant investigation scheduled for 2 p.m. that day, Lee held a press conference at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, to explain the purpose of the complaint against the three, including Leader Choi, and then planned to submit the complaint documents.

In a press release distributed in advance, Lee claimed, “The essence of this ‘collusion between prosecutors and journalists’ incident is a vile political conspiracy orchestrated by Choi Kang-wook, Hwang Hee-seok, and the fake whistleblower Ji to neutralize and seize control of the prosecution investigating the current administration’s corruption, suppress media critical of the current administration, muzzle them, and create a pro-government media.”

He pointed out, “Whether the reporter spoke with the prosecutor or, if so, whether the call was with a close aide of the Prosecutor General is not the essence of this case. The key issue is not who they spoke with but whether illegal activities occurred. Even after thoroughly reading the full transcript, there is no evidence of illegal dealings anywhere.”

He continued, “The fake whistleblower Ji tried to induce illegal transactions with the reporter, but the reporter consistently spoke about legal procedures from start to finish,” adding, “Just by seeing Ji’s complaint to the reporter that ‘only theoretical discussions are happening,’ it is clear that no illegal activity took place.”

Meanwhile, regarding the background of the additional complaint, Lee said, “On April 3, Leader Choi posted on his Facebook, titled ‘Summary of Channel A reporter’s remarks in the letter and transcript,’ saying, ‘Director Lee, even if it’s not true, just say you gave money to Yoo Si-min to save yourself. That’s the end of it,’ which is a clear falsehood,” and claimed, “Leader Choi spread false information without cause, damaging the reporter’s social evaluation and trust, thereby defaming the reporter and obstructing their reporting and news gathering duties.”

He added, “On March 22, Supreme Council member Hwang posted a photo on his Facebook of just the two of them with Leader Choi, captioned ‘Now the two of us are entering the operation,’ and whistleblower Ji shared this post with the comment, ‘Let’s break them! Yoon Seok-yeol’s corrupt prosecutors!! lol,’ which can be seen as conspiring among the three to commit defamation and obstruction of business against the Channel A reporter,” concluding, “Beopse-ryeon will criminally charge the three for joint complicity in defamation by spreading false information and obstruction of business.”

A photo and post capture from Facebook posted by Hwang Hee-seok, Supreme Council Member of the Open Democratic Party, on March 22 (left), and a Facebook post capture by Choi Kang-wook, leader of the Open Democratic Party, on April 3.

Beopse-ryeon filed a complaint with the prosecution on the 4th against Ji for obstruction of business by deception. The complaint alleged that Ji deceived a Channel A reporter into believing that files related to figures from both ruling and opposition parties involved in the ShillaJen case existed when they did not, thereby obstructing the reporter’s work.

In response to Beopse-ryeon’s complaint plan, Supreme Council member Hwang announced on his Facebook the day before that he would take legal action including criminal complaints and civil lawsuits.

On the previous day at around 7:09 p.m., Hwang wrote on Facebook, “I don’t know what kind of people make up Beopse-ryeon or what kind of group it is... (omitted), but it seems to be a group specializing in complaints and accusations, and apparently, there are people behind them who incite and support them,” adding, “When they file baseless complaints, I plan to show what crimes those correspond to and how they are punished. Just wait and see!”

He further wrote, “P.S. I almost forgot. I also plan to claim damages for the complaint acts that wasted my time and energy without reason and caused me distress,” adding, “Considering my hourly income, the compensation will be quite substantial. I will properly show them so that such cases do not happen again.”

Meanwhile, Channel A, the party involved in the controversy, acknowledged the inappropriate conduct of its reporter during the coverage process and issued a public apology through the closing remarks of the ‘News A’ anchor on the 22nd.

Channel A submitted a 53-page internal investigation report on the incident to the Korea Communications Commission and is reportedly planning to disclose the full report on its company website that afternoon.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.