Yeo Files Complaint Against Reporter and Jeong Cheong-rae Over False Report on 'Emergency Committee Member's Honam Derogation'

On the 20th, the People Power Party announced that the report by a certain media outlet alleging that Emergency Response Committee member Park Eun-sik made disparaging remarks about Honam is a clear false report. The party filed a complaint with the police against the reporter from the media outlet and four others, including Jeong Cheong-rae, a Supreme Council member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who quoted the report on the social networking service (SNS) Facebook, on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act (defamation).

In a press release on the same day, the People Power Party stated, "Fabricating and distributing fake news is truly an act that insults the spirit of Gwangju and an irresponsible political behavior by the Democratic Party trying to divide the people. We will hold them accountable," and filed the complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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Earlier, a media outlet reported that in a group chat of the conservative civic organization 'Honam Alternative Forum,' which Park chaired, Park posted multiple messages disparaging the Honam region, including statements such as "They are packaging the Gwangju uprising as a democratization movement, turning it into a sacred place of democratization, and even creating a law for democratization merit recipients to suck the taxpayers' money."

Following the initial report, the Democratic Party issued a statement saying, "Why does Emergency Response Committee Chair Han Dong-hoon not dismiss Park Eun-sik, who insulted the spirit of Gwangju?" and Jeong Cheong-rae, a Supreme Council member of the same party, shared the related report on Facebook, criticizing, "And yet they still invoke the spirit of May 18."

However, the group chat screenshot released by Park the day before showed that the person who posted the controversial message was not Park but someone else, and Park rebutted, saying, "Calling it the Gwangju uprising? Delete it immediately."

The article and the Democratic Party's statement were deleted after Park released the group chat screenshot, and Jeong also deleted his Facebook post and issued a statement saying, "I sincerely regret causing unintended harm as a result."

The People Power Party criticized, "Reprocessing the KakaoTalk content as if Park made disparaging remarks about Honam and attaching it to the article is a malicious false report," adding, "It is a serious and intentional case of fake news spreading that after acknowledging the initial report was false and deleting the article, other media outlets repeatedly reported the same false content and continued posting it on SNS."

They further stated, "The Democratic Party made false comments based on false articles and quietly withdrew the comments without a single apology," emphasizing, "Since the matter is serious and the fake news has already spread, if they do not apologize, we will consider additional complaints."

In a statement, spokesperson Kim Min-su said, "The Democratic Party, which consistently remains silent after it was revealed that their repeated false provocations were clear fake news, is utterly despicable," urging, "The Democratic Party should bow their heads and apologize to the people who have been confused by fake news."

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