The law of political libel and freedom of the press in the Republic of Korea and the United States

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore and analyze political libel in Korea—its past, present, and future. Specifically, the dissertation examines rulings by Korean courts in political libel suits against the press dating from 1996 through the mid-2002. The dissertation includes a comparative analysis of Korean political libel law and U.S. law to provide the foundation for suggesting the future direction of Korea political libel law.; The Korean legal culture, legal tradition, and political traditions made the law of political libel an infrequently used mechanism in dealing with the government and public officials. With the democratization of Korean society since 1987, government officials realized they could no longer use illegal, extralegal, and irrational methods to silence the press, and they seized on libel law, which is still listed in the Criminal Code as well as in the Civil Code, to punish members of the press. During the past six years, the Korean press has continually been challenged by complaints of criminal defamation and civil libel suits filed by public officials. Korean law concerning political libel and the Korean courts have favored public official plaintiffs. On the contrary, American law of political libel and court decisions have favored media defendants while requiring public official plaintiffs to overcome a high barrier of proving actual malice on the part of the media. American courts have applied the actual malice requirement to criminal libel complaints by public officials. Many countries around the world have moved toward reforming their law of political libel.; As long as the principle of a check-and-balances system exists in a representative democracy such as Korea, the expectation that the press will serve as an unfettered critic of government, as the Fourth Estate, will continue to exist. The dissertation suggests judicial adoption of the actual malice standard is needed to begin the process of legally acknowledging the press's role as the Fourth Estate. The dissertation also suggests criminal defamation provisions should be eliminated from the Korean Criminal Code in order to protect journalistic criticism from abuses of power by authoritarian governments and their bureaucrats.