Constitutional Court to Deliver Ruling Today on 'Cultural and Arts Blacklist' Constitutional Complaint Case

Constitutional Court Grand Bench.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] On the 23rd, the Constitutional Court will deliver a ruling on whether the so-called ‘cultural and artistic blacklist’ incident, in which the Park Geun-hye administration created a list of cultural and artistic figures with specific political leanings and excluded them from government support, thereby infringing on their basic rights, violated the rights of the cultural and artistic figures included on the list.

At 2 p.m. on the same day, the Constitutional Court will hold a hearing in the Grand Bench to deliver a verdict on the constitutional complaint filed by artistic director Lee Yoon-taek, Yeonhuidanggeoripa, the Seoul Theater Association, and others who were placed on the blacklist. They claim that the creation and execution of the cultural and artistic blacklist, which excluded them from support, infringed on their right to informational self-determination, freedom of political expression, freedom of art, and right to equality, against former President Park Geun-hye and former Chief Secretary Kim Ki-chun.

The ‘cultural and artistic blacklist’ incident involved the Park Geun-hye administration collecting and retaining information about cultural and artistic figures’ political leanings, such as their participation in declarations supporting specific politicians or calls to repeal the Sewol ferry enforcement ordinance, and using this information to exclude them from cultural and artistic support projects.

This suspicion was specifically confirmed through the indictment filed by Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo, who investigated the state affairs manipulation case, against former Chief Secretary Kim and others.

After former President Park’s election, former Chief Secretary Kim ordered measures to disadvantage cultural and artistic figures who had political leanings opposing the administration or had a history of such political expression. At that time, the Senior Secretary for Political Affairs and others built and managed a database to exclude support and delivered the ‘blacklist’ to officials at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

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