A financial news executive, Amugae Jo, who was accused of sexually harassing the apprentice reporter using his business powers, sentenced to 1 year in prison.
The prosecution said at a decision trial held on the 19th at the hearing of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal 14 (Judge Jeong Seong-wan), “The process of specifying the date and time of the crime is natural, concrete and reliable statements. At the time of the incident, former and current reporters on Financial News made a statement that matches the victim’s statement, which is more credible.”
Regarding the accused Jo, he said, “It is difficult to believe because there were times when the test result of psychological physiology (lie detector) showed false reactions, and there were parts where the allegations did not make sense.” The prosecution said, “Even so, the accused denies the crime entirely, and the victim is suffering quite a lot in the process,” he said.
The prosecution said, “First of all, this case is not only a crime within the company’s organization, but also something that should not be happening in the media community, so please consider that it is a problem that should never be recurred.” The prosecution requested the court to give a one-year imprisonment, as well as a sexual violence treatment program enrollment and an order to restrict employment.
Previously, the prosecution said that the facts of fellow reporters, such as that Mr. Cho called for dinner at the time, requesting the attendance of Mr. Byeon Amugae, and that Mr. Byeon became difficult after the incident, and that the male motives took turns sitting next to him. I submitted evidence such as KakaoTalk conversation capture.
In February 2018, Mr. Byeon made public opinion on Facebook about the facts of the sexual harassment damage caused by Mr. Jo. Byun said,’The manager who was in charge of training new reporters sat next to him at a dinner party and habitually molested him.’ In October 2018, Cho sued the victim for defamation due to timely false information, and Byeon sued him for sexual harassment as a defense. However, except for crimes that did not meet legal requirements, they were prosecuted with one prosecution.
After Byeon left the company in April 2016, the labor union informed the management of the incident and requested measures to prevent recurrence, but it ended up excluding the job of training training. After’Me Too’, Financial News suspended Jo for three months in March 2018, and Jo was asked for a retrial, but it was confirmed. After being prosecuted in 2019, Mr. Cho is on standby as a deputy director-level executive.
The accused Jo argued with the effect that'(Mr. Byeon) is making false claims with bad feelings about himself.’ In his final pleading, Mr. Cho said in a statement by former and current financial news reporters, “The reference people seem to have some people with hostile feelings for what reason,” he said. “I haven’t been very successful for 30 years, but I have been thinking of my job as a journalist,” said Jo.
Mr. Byeon revealed his position through the reading of a lawyer on this day. Byun said, “Colleagues I worked with at the time say that thanks to this incident, the media community was a little bit healthier than in the past. However, nothing has been resolved personally. “I left the media forever, and the fragments of memories that come to mind from moment to moment still make me difficult. Nevertheless, the reason that the trial continues to the end is because the media industry, who has been involved for a while, and hopes that our society will change.”
Mr. Byeon said, “I am not the only victim of this incident, expecting that a young, low-age woman will become the’flower’ of the organization, and the words and actions that are made without hesitation cannot be justified under any circumstances.” It wasn’t something that happened once in a while. In addition, there are still numerous victims and perpetrators in the media world.” Byun said, “The impact of this trial on the media and its workers in the future is very large. I ask for severe punishment so that the accused and other perpetrators hiding in the media can live a life of admitting and reflecting on their faults.”
Cho’s sentence will be held at 1:55 pm on April 28 at the Seoul Central District Court.
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