Supreme Court: "Using Real Names in Articles About Court Union Staff Formerly Affiliated with Tongjindang Was a Mistake"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has ruled that a daily newspaper is liable for damages due to invasion of privacy after publishing an article revealing the real names of full-time staff members of the Court Employees' Union who were former members of the now-defunct Unified Progressive Party (Tongjindang).

The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Park Sang-ok) announced on the 7th that it upheld the appellate court's ruling partially in favor of plaintiffs A and two others, full-time staff members of the Court Employees' Union, in their damages lawsuit against Munhwa Ilbo.

The court stated, "There is no error in the appellate court's judgment."

In October 2013, Munhwa Ilbo posted articles on its website's society section with headlines such as "Two Court Employees' Union Officials Are Tongjindang Members" and "'Cheonan Ship Fabrication,' 'Lee Seok-ki Investigation Exaggerated' Posts Run Rampant." At the time, Tongjindang was embroiled in controversy over allegations of pro-North Korean activities.

The articles mentioned three full-time Court Employees' Union members by name, stating that they were "either Tongjindang members or former members of the Korean University Student Union Federation (Han Chong-ryeon)."

In response, A and the others filed a damages lawsuit, claiming that Munhwa Ilbo's publication of their real names violated their privacy and damaged their reputations.

The first trial court found Munhwa Ilbo liable for damages and ordered the newspaper to pay 5 million won to A and 3 million won each to the other two plaintiffs.

The appellate court ruled that Munhwa Ilbo was not liable for damages regarding some claims such as defamation due to exaggerated headlines, reducing the damages to 4 million won for A and 2 million won each for the other two plaintiffs.

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