Crime of contempt

It's the Law

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Insult assault, Crime of contempt or Offense of context(모욕죄) refers to a crime committed by publicly insulting a person.

Many advanced countries, including Europe, Japan and the United States, have had their "crime of contempt" unenforced or repealed. On the other hand, South Korea still regards this as a crime even though it infringes on freedom of speech.

The bigger problem is that public figures such as celebrities and politicians are over-issuing criminal lawsuits related to offense-of-context charges against ordinary citizens.

For example, this is the latest case. Around August 2019, left-wing nationalist woman netizens denounced conservative right-wing politician 'Na Kyung-won'(나경원) as "pro-Japanese bitch" and "Whore of Shinzō Abe". In response, Na sued 170 netizens who used abusive language against him on the net. (Even though I didn't swear directly at Na Kyung-won.)^[1]

This complaints involving offense of context is a common occurrence in South Korea. The UN is concerned about Korea's freedom of expression and called for the abolition of the offense of context law, but a majority of politicians and public figures in Korea oppose a repeal of the law.

Ironically, South Korea's conservative forces argue that freedom of expression is limited in this matter, and hate speech also shows an absurd double standard, which they claim is freedom of expression.

Most developed countries do not criminally punish the 'Crime of contempt', which is only a minor swearing contention, but the hate speech related to minority groups is clearly criminal. The UN is also calling on the South Korean government to abolish the 'Crime of contempt' and instead create a law that punishes hate speech.

In short, even if homophobia say to unspecified homosexuals, "The faggot is psychotic and should be treated.", you cannot punish them (because there is no law in S.Korea that punishes hate speech), but if a gay person becomes angry and calls him "son of bitch", homophobia cub will be able to punish him with 'Crime of content'.

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