“Free Right Support” “Moon Jae-in is a spy” Remarks Court “Innocent”
“Is color theory painter also freedom of expression?”
Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon Sarang First Church, who was convicted of violation of the Public Official Election Act and defamation, was convicted in the first trial, is leaving the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on the 30th. yunhap news
Ahead of the 4·15 general election, Jeon Kwang-hoon, the senior pastor of Sarangjeil Church, was acquitted on the 30th, who was accused of saying, “Please support the free-right party” and “Moon Jae-in is a spy”. The judge said,’We need a space to breathe for freedom of expression’, but the controversy is expected to continue as the lower-level judgments about the illegal election campaign and the stigma of color theory are mixed.
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Pastor Jeon appealed for “support the free-right party” at gatherings and prayer meetings held in Seoul Gwanghwamun and Daegu in January this year from last December. “As long as the free-right people elect Hwang Gyo-an as their representative, we must unite and win on April 15th. Representative Hwang Gyo-an, which we chose, hasn’t had a leader like this since all generations.”, “When you take a proportional representative, you have to take the Christian Liberal Party. God-given Free Korea Party was actually a Christian Party, so we hope that all of them will be elected in the district by working well together. If we are elected as proportional representatives, when the two are combined, history will surely happen.” He also said, “Moon Jae-in is a spy. I tried to communize the Republic of Korea with a communist motherland.” In March, the prosecution indicted the former pastor for violating the Public Officials Election Act and for defamation. However, the 34th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (President Heo Seon-ah) said on the charges of violating the election law, “It is difficult to say that the point lies in the support of the Free Korean Party, with the purpose of’the free-right political parties should unite with Hwang Gyo-an as the lead’. He was acquitted. The judiciary said, “At the time of the remarks, the political party candidates have not been registered yet, so there is no specific candidate. In response to the charges of Gyeongnam Governor Kim Gyeong-soo (violation of the Election Act) that he helped the Democratic Party candidates to be elected in the June 2018 local election by manipulating the ranking of comments on Internet articles with King Crab, the first trial said, “The comment work was maintained until the local election, so online public opinion If continued in a favorable direction to the Democratic Party, in light of the reality of party politics, it will serve as a considerable benefit to the Democratic Party candidates in local elections.” It is similar to the purpose. The court judged innocent about the charges of defamation, saying, “It only appears to be an opinion expression or rhetorical exaggeration aimed at criticizing the political disposition of the victim (President Moon), a public figure.” He added, “The law should not be interpreted by unwillingly expand and interpret so as not to harm the foundation and essence of freedom of expression, and the application of the law should be strictly applied to allow space for breathing.” However, there is also an objection that politically abused’color theory stigma’ should not be protected with freedom of expression. Former Broadcasting Culture Promotion Committee Chairman Ko Young-ju, saying, “Moon Jae-in is a communist,” was not guilty at the first trial, but the appeals trial said, “In Korea, where the confrontation between the two Koreas continues and the conflict is severe, attacking other political ideologies under the banner of conservative and progressive There is a high possibility of promoting social division, so we must be on guard so that it does not become a malicious side.” Seung Jae-hyun, a researcher at the Korea Criminal Policy Institute, said, “Considering the concept of the election campaign is ambiguous and the political situation is shifting centered around the political party due to the recent election system reform, it is necessary to discuss whether remarks in support or opposition to a specific party can be considered an election campaign.” He said, “We must seriously consider how far the people can tolerate remarks such as “spy” in a democratic society.” By Jo Yoon-young, staff reporter