Supreme Court: "Message Left by Parent of School Violence Victim Saying 'No Contact with Violent Offender' Is Not Defamation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has acquitted a parent who was prosecuted for defamation by including phrases in their mobile messenger status message that could identify a student who bullied their daughter at school.

The Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Kim Jae-hyung) overturned the lower court's ruling that sentenced A (41) to a fine of 2 million won for violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, etc. (defamation), and remanded the case to the Busan District Court on the 16th.

The court stated, "The term 'school bully' used by A is a general expression referring to a person who committed school violence, but A did not specifically designate any individual as a school bully," adding, "It cannot be concluded that A’s use of the term 'school bully' was a reference to the actual incident."

Furthermore, the court added, "It cannot be seen that A revealed specific facts sufficient to degrade the social value or evaluation of the student through the status message."

A was prosecuted for defaming student B, who bullied A’s daughter, by posting the phrase "No contact with school bullies" along with a fist emoji in the KakaoTalk profile status message in 2017.

A was also accused of psychologically threatening B by telling her, "Do not get close to my daughter."

Initially, A requested the school violence committee to separate B and A’s daughter, but when the request was denied, A took these actions, according to the investigation.

The first trial recognized all of A’s charges and sentenced A to a fine of 5 million won.

The second trial also noted, "A was a member of a KakaoTalk group chat consisting of 19 parents of the same class, so many parents could recognize the status message posted by A," and "some parents were aware that school violence had occurred."

However, the court ruled that "although A’s actions toward B were inappropriate, it is difficult to see them as acts causing significant danger or physical harm to the child," acquitting A of the threat charges and reducing the fine to 2 million won.

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