"Distorting Statements to Create 'Vaccine Ambassador'... Professor Cheon Eun-mi Sues Ministry of Culture Employees"

Professor Cheon Eun-mi of the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital featured in the government's vaccine promotional material. / Photo by the Government of the Republic of Korea Twitter capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghoon Jung] Professor Eunmi Cheon, an infectious disease specialist at Ewha Mokdong Hospital, who revealed that the government produced a card news promoting COVID-19 vaccine policies by distorting her statements, has filed a complaint with the police against two employees of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (hereafter MoCST) and one journalist.

According to the police on the 25th, Professor Cheon filed a criminal complaint for defamation against them at the Mapo Police Station in Seoul.

Professor Cheon claimed that a phrase in the card news produced by MoCST in March last year, "It is important to get vaccinated 'quickly and in large numbers'," distorted the content of her interview. She stated, "Without any prior or subsequent notice, they used the hospital's full-body profile photo in the MoCST government policy promotional publication 'Gonggam' and the card news section, producing and distributing it as if I were an ambassador for the government’s vaccine policy, and I have submitted a complaint to the Mapo Police Station for defamation."

MoCST previously produced the card news based on an interview with Professor Cheon published in the weekly magazine 'Gonggam.' It is reported that one journalist from a certain media outlet participated in the interview. Although the interview mainly explained vaccine side effects and treatments, only parts favorable to the government were extracted and used, omitting other content.

Professor Cheon said, "They extracted a single remark I made about the need to quickly import vaccines when supply was insufficient before vaccine side effects emerged," adding, "They did not tell me the title and arbitrarily took my photo to create the card news." She added, "I have always spoken about vaccine side effects, but after the card news, I was completely portrayed as a vaccine promotion ambassador," expressing regret over the distortion.

Professor Cheon said she only recently became aware of the card news and had previously announced legal action. Currently, the card news has been removed online.

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