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Before the April 15 general election, Im Mi-ri, a Korea University research professor, who wrote a column titled “Except for the Democratic Party,” filed a constitutional petition to repeal the provision.
Professor Lim held a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 23rd, and said: “The suspension of prosecution by the prosecution could reduce criticism of political power and freedom of expression. , so we decided to file a constitutional complaint. “
Professor Lim contributed a column titled “Except the Democratic Party” in Kyunghyang Shinmun on January 29. At the time, the Democratic Party accused Professor Lim of violating the Election of Public Officials Act in this column and dropped it in response to a headwind of public opinion. After that, a civic group, ‘Citizen Solidarity for Redemption Compensation’, again charged Professor Lim. After an investigation by the prosecution, Prof. Lim was deferred from prosecution on the 16th for “requesting participation in the vote.” The suspension of prosecution is a provision that criminal charges are admitted, but the prosecutor will not deliver to trial for various circumstances.
Professor Lim argued that “the court order against me is to use the power of law to discipline expressions that harm the ruling party in power,” he said. “My column is completely irrelevant to the acts that harm the fairness of the elections.”
In particular, he said, “in a society with a strong ideological conflict and a field logic, it is more necessary to monitor and control political power through means of expression other than voting.”
He also opened his mouth to the last sentence of the column and the controversial expression: “Let’s vote except for the Democratic Party.” “I told the Democratic Party, not the voters,” he said. “Even if it wasn’t during the election period, they told me to treat people as scary as they did during the election, and to serve as a teacher.”
He said: “It is not in accordance with the purpose and purpose of the Public Officials Elections Law to mechanically apply the Public Officials Elections Law by removing only one sentence from the entire column.”
Professor Lim said: “If this level of expression and action is dictated by law, no one can easily criticize the political power unless they have great courage and special determination in the future. Be”.
