Freedom of the Press and Right of Reply under the Contemporary Korean Libel Laws: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

ARTICLES FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND RIGHT OF REPLY UNDER THE CONTEMPORARY KOREAN LIBEL LAWS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Jae-Jin Lee* I. INTRODUCTION An important task in a democratic society is to strike a bal- ance among essential but conflicting social interests. A govern- ment is responsible for the harmonious adjustment of contending rights. Thus, a government is expected to establish legal stan- dards to reconcile competing social interests by weighing their relative significance in society. A government also needs to pro- vide its people with remedies when their rights are unlawfully infringed. This proposition is true for the Korean government. The Korean government established the Press Arbitration Commission (PAC) to strike a balance between conflicting inter- ests of the media and the public. 1 Since its formation in 1981, PAC has been a central apparatus for resolving libel problems outside the courts and has provided individuals with a means to redress damage to their reputation. PAC has worked as an offi- cial forum that helped both the press and the public to resolve Assistant Professor, Hanyang University, Korea; Ph.D., Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; M.A., University of Iowa; M.A. & B.A., Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. The author sincerely thanks Professors Robert Spellman, SIUC and Kyu-Ho Youm, Arizona State University for their expertise and guidance for this article. 1. PAC was established as a preliminary legal agency. It is mandatory for a person who wants to ask a court to order a right of reply to first apply to the com- mission for arbitration. The arbitration process is free of charge for both the public and the press. Right of reply refers to a remedy in libel litigation that awards an opportunity for publication of a counterclaim in the same media in which a defama- tory remark was made against an individual. The basis of the right of reply is that the one who has been libeled may answer in kind.