In South Korea, victims of media report damage can apply for conciliation to the Press Arbitration Commission(hereinafter, the "Commission") in addition to filing a suit to the court to have their damage relieved in a civil procedure.
The number of c...
In South Korea, victims of media report damage can apply for conciliation to the Press Arbitration Commission(hereinafter, the "Commission") in addition to filing a suit to the court to have their damage relieved in a civil procedure.
The number of conciliation applications filed at the Commission in 2005~2020 has amounted to 56,408, being on the rise. Of the application types, objection reports(42.8%) recorded the highest "conciliation settlement" ratio, being followed by correction reports(40.7%), compensation for damages(34.7%), and ex post facto reports(18.0%) in the order. The withdrawal ratio was the highest in ex post facto reports(56.2%), which were followed by compensation for damages(36.8%), objection reports(33.6%), and correction reports(32.2%) in the order.
Applications for compensation for damages and correction reports accounted for 51.0% and 31.8%, respectively, in civil suits(3,271) involving press disputes between 2015 and 2020. The order was reversed in conciliation applications(20,749) for the Commission, in which applications for correction reports and compensation for damages accounted for 48.4% and 33.1%, respectively.
The percentage of filing a suit again after the Commission has shown a growing trend, recording 2.4% in 2013, 5.8% in 2018, and 5.7% in 2019.
Decisions made by the Commission are of great importance in that decisions of "conciliation" settlement have the same effect as "judicial reconciliation" and that those of "arbitration" have the same effect as a final ruling. The present study compared and analyzed the 52 cases that received arbitrations from the Commission and sentences from the Supreme Court at the same time in 2015~2019. The results were as follows:
The Commission recognized a smaller scope of "freedom of speech" than the court in 12(23.1%) of the 52 cases. In other words, while the Supreme Court dismissed the assertions of infringement by the applicants(plaintiffs), the Commission made ex officio adjustments with corrections, objections, and article revisions. In four of these cases, the Commission made arbitrations by its authority with correction or objection reports for the matters that the Supreme Court dismissed an application for by citing opinions opposite to statements of facts. In five of these cases, the Commission made ex officio adjustments with correction or objection reports whereas the Supreme Court dismissed applications for correction or objection reports by citing "The content of the application is false." In eight cases(15.4%), the applicants had their damage such as an infringement of personal rights relieved in a suit in the court based on the expanded scope of "freedom of speech" by the Commission.
17(32.7%) cases received a sentence from the court after the Commission made a non-settlement decision. Of the 52 cases, 17(32.7%) received a sentence from the court after the Commission made a non-settlement decision. The remaining 15 cases, the decision were similar between the Committee and the court's.
The usage rate of the arbitration application system was so low that no arbitration applications were filed for the relief of damage by press reports at the Commission in 2019~2021.
The Press Arbitration Commission is a unique system to South Korea not found in any other major nations in the world. There is a lack of institutional devices to guarantee the organizational independence and neutrality of the Commission. There are also "chilling effects" on "freedom of speech." Applications started only for a right of reply. The right of claim for correction and ex post facto reports was introduced along with a claim for damages. "Injunctions" including article deletion are implemented partially via a conciliation procedure. The regulations for clashes between freedom of speech and personal rights seem to have "chilling effects" on "freedom of speech.".
There are the right functions in the current arbitration system. The right of reply system has settled down via the Press Arbitration Law. As many people apply for conciliation to the Commission in reality, it has become a solving press disputes. Claims for objection and correction reports have effects to a certain degree.
In conclusion, the study made the following proposals for the revision of the Press Arbitration Law to improve the issues of the Commission:
First, the Commission needs to reduce its expanded "arbitration and conciliation functions." For this, the study proposes to remove the provisions about claim for damages(Article 30), the provisions about regarding an objection to an ex officio adjustment decision as a filing a suit(Article 22, Clause 4), and the provisions about the arbitration functions of the Commission(Article 24) in the Press Arbitration Law, as well as change the name of the Commission to the "Press Conciliation Commission."
Secondly, the Commission should reinforce its independence and neutrality and strengthen the procedure of checking actual facts in a conciliation process.
Finally, the provisions about corrective recommendation(Article 32) should be removed to increase the fairness of the Commission. The study also proposes "addressing clashes between freedom of speech and personal rights in a norm-harmonizing manner as the purposes of Press Arbitration Law."