UN Human Rights Committee Urges South Korea to Abolish Criminal Defamation and Stop Using It to Crack Down on Free Speech

The UN Human Rights Committee has recommended that South Korea abolish criminal defamation laws and ensure they are not used to suppress dissenting media or as a tool to silence critical voices. In its concluding observations on South Korea’s fifth periodic review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), released on November 3, 2023, the Committee specifically addressed issues related to freedom of expression.

The Committee urged the South Korean government to decriminalize defamation and emphasized that imprisonment is never an appropriate punishment for defamation. It also called on the government to ensure that criminal laws are not used to stifle journalists or dissenting opinions and to foster a culture of tolerance for criticism, which is vital for democracy.

The recommendations were prompted by concerns over cases where journalists expressing critical views about government or corporate interests faced criminal prosecution. High-ranking officials and elected representatives in South Korea have frequently filed criminal complaints against journalists who are critical of them. Civil society organizations, such as Open Net, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, and GongGam, highlighted instances where criminal defamation laws were used to target anti-government media outlets through excessive measures like raids and searches, which undermine freedom of expression.

The Committee noted that South Korea’s criminal defamation laws, which allow imprisonment even for truthful statements, contravene international human rights standards. The practice of using such laws to silence critical voices and conduct excessive investigations, including arrests and searches, was described as a clear violation of international norms.

The recommendations reiterated similar advice from the 2015 review, where the Committee had urged South Korea to abolish criminal defamation laws and at least eliminate prison sentences and defamation laws that apply to truthful statements. The international community has increasingly advocated for decriminalizing even false defamation, yet South Korea still penalizes truthful statements under its defamation laws.

The Committee emphasized that South Korea, as a party to the ICCPR, should heed these repeated recommendations, consider abolishing criminal defamation laws, and at a minimum, eliminate defamation penalties for truthful statements and prison sentences.

Korean version text