Court Rejects Injunction to Ban Broadcast of 'Money Envelope Suspicion' Recording

The court dismissed the injunction request filed by former Democratic Party Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jeong-geun, who sought to prohibit the broadcast use of a recording containing his voice related to the 'money envelope suspicion.'

According to the court on the 15th, the 21st Civil Division of the Seoul Western District Court (Chief Judge Lim Jeong-yeop) dismissed the injunction case filed by former Deputy Secretary-General Lee against JTBC, stating that it could not recognize infringement of personality rights and that the matter was of public interest.

The court stated, "For a prior injunction request to prohibit broadcast reports or a request to delete already reported articles on the grounds of infringement of personality rights to be accepted, the content of the expression must be untrue or not related to matters of public interest," adding, "The claimant argues that the news and comments on the articles damage his honor, but he did not specifically identify parts of the expression that are untrue or unrelated to matters of public interest and thus infringe on his personality rights."

Furthermore, the court said, "The claimant only vaguely claims that the defendant cannot report the recording file in question or must delete the already reported articles simply because the claimant's voice is included," and "A person who claims that their honor has been damaged by false articles and requests deletion of the articles bears the burden of proof, but former Deputy Secretary-General Lee did not claim or demonstrate that the news content was untrue."

The court also explained, "(Former Deputy Secretary-General Lee) is a public figure as he served as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party," and "Since this concerns public activities rather than private life, freedom of expression must be maximally guaranteed."

Regarding the former Deputy Secretary-General's pointing out the illegality of how the broadcasting company obtained the recording file, the court noted, "It is difficult to see that the judgment on whether the right to be preserved is recognized changes depending on the acquisition method," and "The claimant only vaguely speculates that criminal acts might have been involved in obtaining the recording file but has not provided any specific evidence."

Former Deputy Secretary-General Lee had filed an injunction request with the Seoul Western District Court on the 2nd to prohibit JTBC from using the recording containing his voice in broadcasts. The recording is known to include circumstances where former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil was reported to have handed over a money envelope.

Previously, in February, former Deputy Secretary-General Lee had submitted an injunction request to the Seoul Western District Court to prevent JTBC from using the recording containing his voice in broadcasts.

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