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Japanese journalist acquitted over Park row
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A JAPANESE journalist was acquitted yesterday of defaming South Korean President Park Geun-hye over his report on her whereabouts following a fatal ferry disaster, in a case that strained diplomatic relations.
Tatsuya Kato, former Seoul bureau chief for Japan’s Sankei Shimbun daily, was put on trial in December last year on a charge of criminal libel for an article he wrote questioning where Park was on the day the Sewol passenger ferry sank, killing 300 people.
The article picked up unproven rumors circulating in the South Korean media that the unmarried Park had disappeared for a tryst with her former aide at the time of the disaster.
A Seoul court said yesterday Kato’s article had damaged Park’s reputation as an individual, but accepted his argument that it was intended to serve the public interest and found him innocent of the charge. “The court declares the accused was not guilty of defaming Park in her capacity as the president,” the Seoul Central District Court said in the verdict.
It added the freedom of the press “must be respected to the full” for the development of democracy, although the rumors over Park’s whereabouts turned out to be false.
Seoul prosecutors had demanded a guilty verdict and an 18-month jail term for Kato, arguing he had intended to defame Park. Kato and the newspaper welcomed the verdict, saying prosecutors should respect the court’s decision and give up any attempt to appeal.
At the beginning of the trial, Senior Judge Lee Dong-Geun presiding over a three-judge panel read a request from South Korea’s foreign ministry that the court consider positively Japan’s appeal for leniency.
The ministry noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries and their ever-frozen ties now showed signs of thawing.
After being banned from leaving South Korea for nine months, Kato was finally allowed to return to Tokyo in April, and kept his word to present himself to the court for the verdict.
The trial had further irritated already inflamed ties between South Korea and its former colonial power Japan, which have for decades bickered over history and territorial disputes.
Relations have showed signs of improvement in recent months, including with a summit between Park and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Seoul last month.
Abe said yesterday he hoped the verdict would help push Japan-South Korea relations forward. He told reporters in Tokyo yesterday that he was hoping that the acquittal would have “positive effects” on ties.
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