Kato’s story goes back to August 2014, when he published an article on the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun’s website questioning the South Korean president’s whereabouts in April 2014 during a tragic ferry accident where more than 300 passengers perished.
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The article picked up unproven rumours circulating in the South Korean media that the unmarried Park had disappeared for a tryst with her former aide when the boat sank off South Korea’s southern coast.
The Seoul Central District Court had said, however, its final verdict did not imply the content of Kato’s article was true. Prosecutors sought an 18-month prison sentence for Kato.
However, the court cleared him.
“The process was unfair and discriminatory from the start”, said Kato, whose newspaper is known to take a conservative approach to delicate issues of wartime history that still plague bilateral ties.
Before the trial began, the Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the Justice Ministry to seriously consider Japan’s request in light of recent signs of improvement in Korea-Japan relations and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the bilateral normalisation treaty.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A Seoul court on Thursday acquitted a Japanese reporter of defaming South Korea’s president by reporting that she was spending time with a man during a deadly ferry disaster previous year.
“President Park really wants to improve ties with Japan this year”, a source close to the president’s office said.
The case drew criticism from media and human rights groups over Park’s stance on freedom of the press and fuelled worry that the legal system could be used to stifle political opposition.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he “appreciates” the verdict and that he hoped that “it will have a positive impact on relations between Japan and South Korea”.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been at a deadlock, with South Korea accusing Japan of being unapologetic for its colonial past, in particular with regard to the issue of Korean “comfort women”, as sex workers forced to work in Japanese military brothels were known as during World War Two.
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Press freedom rankings by Reporters Without Borders placed South Korea at 60th among 180 countries in the index, down three notches from a year earlier.
