Prominent Politicians’ Use of Criminal Insult Laws are Deeply Troubling

The police recently announced that they had identified over a hundred suspects following Representative Na Kyungwon’s complaints against those who had commented on the internet calling her names such as ‘betrayer of our country’, and ‘Nabe’. Open Net is deeply troubled by politicians’ and prominent figures’ usage of Insult laws to stifle the public’s critical opinions.
The United Nations Human Rights Council urged Governments to “abolish all Penal Code restrictions on freedom of expression that stipulate imprisonment and the death penalty for “insults”to officials, the judiciary or the State”. Open Net has filed a constitutional complaint to the Constitutional Court of Korea to find criminal insult laws unconstitutional.
Open Net urges Representative Na Kyungwon to drop her complaints against those who have written internet comments about her, and calls on the National Assembly to pass Representative Keum Taesup’s proposed amendment to the Criminal Act that abolishes criminal Insult laws[…]

For more information, please read the Korean original here.