The acquittal of a Japanese journalist by a South Korean court Thursday came after Seoul’s unusual effort to prevent this high-profile case from reversing the recent thaw in bilateral relations.
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A Seoul court said Thursday Kato’s article had defamed her as “an individual”, but accepted his argument that it was meant to serve the public interest and found him innocent of the defamation charge.
The former Seoul bureau chief of Japan’s “Sankei Shimbun” newspaper had reported that Park had chosen to spend her time with a former adviser instead.
Critics had said the decision to prosecute infringed on free speech.
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 a year ago.
On April 16, 2014, on the day of the South Korean ferry sinking, Park was unreachable for seven hours. Korean prosecutors previously demanded the court to hand down an 18-month prison term.
According to the court, Kato said he admitted the statements in his article were false, and that he was acquitted because he said he did not intend to slander Park or Jeong.
“President Park really wants to improve ties with Japan this year”, a source close to the president’s office said.
“This is the outcome I expected”, Kato told journalists in Seoul before flying back home. The judge added that the rumors Kato reported were not true, . and while the article defamed the president as a person, it didn’t as a public figure.
Kato’s lawyer argued that Kato wrote the column based on rumors that were already published in the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper. Ties between the countries have worsened since the 2012 inauguration of hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who many South Koreans see as trying to whitewash Japan’s colonial and wartime abuses.
“To the Japanese government, we made it clear that Korea expects such reports of clearly false rumors not to pose a burden on Korea-Japan relations again”, a senior official at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said on the customary condition of anonymity.
“There are signs of improvement in South Korea-Japan relations”.
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The Sankei – a centre-right daily – has suggested it was being singled out by South Korean authorities for its campaign to reverse a Japanese apology for forcing Korean women into brothels during WWII.
