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When the Ministry of Justice announced on the 28th a legislative amendment to the Commercial Law, which included the introduction of a system of compensation for punitive damages that maintained up to five times the amount of damages caused by media reports, the Association of Journalists of Korea, the Association of Korean Newspapers and the Association of Korean Newspaper Publishers joined forces on the 28th. In a statement, the Ministry of Justice demanded that the implementation of the punitive damages compensation system that violates freedom of expression.
These three organizations defined the bill as “a bad law that essentially violates the fundamental rights of the Constitution, the right to freedom of expression and the right of the people to know”, and warned that “immediately stop the review of the bill Of law”. In a statement, they said: “The punitive damage compensation system is an adequate system to correct when a number of weak people are harmed by the strongest in society. It is a risky idea to hold the media responsible for the responsibility of the product, where the control of power is its natural function. ” He insisted.
They said: “In the United States, the punitive damages compensation system against the media is operated in a very limited way due to the violation of press freedom. This is due to problems such as over-regulation and unconstitutional ownership to undermine the surveillance function of the media and the people’s right to know.
They cited a case where the amendment to the Media Arbitration Law was abolished in the past by the National Assembly, which included the introduction of the punitive damages compensation system from media reports, and stated that “the current government was canceled due to major side effects and damage to our society due to media contraction. ” “I can’t really understand that this time the government legislation is going to enforce this system.”
Above all, the three organizations said: “It is difficult to believe that the idea of democratic government is to impose punitive punishment on the media with the vague standard of malicious and false news.” “Is the current government going to censor the media with a huge ruling party behind it? Criticized.
They said: “I am not saying that the media is not responsible for false reports. Media companies have their own independent committees or viewer committees and participate in midnight activities to prevent misinformation damage. If there is dissatisfaction, the media arbitration committee or the Korea Communications Standards Commission may request corrective reports and counter reports, and lawsuits against media companies are also possible. ” He said the current system is sufficient to alleviate the damage caused by false reports.
They reaffirmed that “legislation that threatens press freedom, which is the foundation of our society, must be approached with great care.” “The government must arbitrarily enforce the compensation system for punitive damages to the media without consensus or social justification. In this case, he warned, “I will use all means to actively stop it.”
The amendment to the Commercial Law announced by the Ministry of Justice on the 23rd contains the purpose of expanding and introducing the compensation system for punitive damages, which was dispersed in 19 laws, in the Commercial Law as a whole. According to this, the media companies, a company under the Commercial Law, are also subject to punitive damages. If intentional or gross negligence is recognized due to misinformation, the company will be liable for compensation within the range of 5 times the damage caused by the report.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, Park Cheol-woo, told the media today: “It is not a law directed at the media.” Said. Even now, misinformation is judged by the malicious nature of the damage and the media appears to be overreacting.
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