Reporter Personal Information Disclosure by Choo Mi-ae... Police Decide 'No Charges' and Non-Prosecution

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] The police have decided not to prosecute former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae, who was reported for revealing a reporter's real name and phone number on her social networking service (SNS).

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 22nd that they had decided not to prosecute former Minister Chu, who was reported on the 14th for violations of the Personal Information Protection Act, defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (Information and Communications Network Act), and obstruction of business.

Regarding the complainant's claim that they were subjected to so-called 'targeting' which interfered with their work as a reporter, the police judged that the obstruction of business charge was not recognized, noting that only seven people directly called the reporter after seeing former Minister Chu's post. Former Minister Chu reportedly stated during the police investigation that she did not intend to expose the phone number, saying, "If the purpose was targeting, I would not have hidden the phone number."

The police also judged that the defamation charge was not applicable, as former Minister Chu expressed a subjective opinion and there was no intent to slander.

In October of last year, an internet media outlet reported that a member of the Seongnam International Mafia faction took a photo with former Minister Chu. Subsequently, former Minister Chu posted on her SNS the text messages exchanged with the reporter who wrote the article, stating that the article's title and photo description, which suggested she posed with the international mafia, damaged and distorted her public image through malicious reporting. At the time of posting, the reporter's real name and phone number were exposed in the text messages, sparking controversy over 'targeting,' and the phone number was later obscured.

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