Lee Young-jo

By Lee Tae-hoon

The Seoul Central District Court has ruled that Lee Young-jo, the former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission must pay 24 million won in compensation for abusing his authority to ban the distribution of a government published book, one of its translators said Friday.

“It was a long, painstaking legal battle,” said Kim Sung-soo, executive director of Transparency International-Korea. “I am relieved to find that justice eventually prevails.”

Two translators, Kim and Park Eun-wook, and Mike Hurt, the final copy editor of the book, filed a lawsuit against Lee for defamation in 2010. The three will receive 8 million won each from him for psychological damage that they suffered for falsely being accused of producing substandard translation work.

“Voiceless people can also differentiate what is right or wrong, but they are often hesitant to seek justice because they believe power is in control. I hope this case helps powerless people pluck up the courage to address injustice.”

Lee stopped the distribution of an English-language book that reveals a dark chapter in the country’s modern history for alleged translation errors upon taking office as the head of the truth commission in December 2009.

The Korea Times published an article that shed light on the lawsuit and “uncomfortable truth” about the banned book under the title “Forbidden Book Haunts Truth Commission” on May 6 2010.

Many believe Lee, viewed to have an extreme far-right ideology, prohibited the distribution of the book, which his liberal predecessor Ahn Byung-ook commissioned as a part of efforts in acknowledging past atrocities, for ideological reasons.

The ban drew much attention as it exemplified the challenges the nation faces in looking at dark chapters of history and deceitful reconciliation efforts between those in power and their victims.

Lee denied the ban was an attempt to conceal the former liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration’s efforts to uncover disturbing facts about Korea’s modern history.

He claimed that the book was put together in a hurry ahead of Ahn’s visit to Latin America in 2008, and its alleged substandard English would “affect the reputation and credibility of the state-run body.”

Insiders of the truth commission, however, argued that it was an apparent act of political censorship that Lee imposed in a bid to win the ruling Saenuri Party’s ticket to run in the National Assembly elections.

The ruling party withdrew its nomination of Lee for the April 11 National Assembly election in fear of a public uproar after the media exposed his “distortion of modern Korean history.”

He had received the party’s backing to run in the parliamentary election in Seoul’s Gangnam B electoral district.

Cover of the banned book

The ban drew much attention as it exemplified the challenges the nation faces in looking at dark chapters of history and deceitful reconciliation efforts between those in power and powerless victims.

Lee denied the ban was an attempt to conceal the former liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration’s efforts to uncover disturbing facts about Korea’s modern history.

He claimed the book was put together in a hurry ahead of the former TRC president’s visit to Latin America in 2008, and its alleged substandard English would “affect the reputation and credibility of the state-run body.” Insiders of the truth commission, however, argued that it was an apparent act of political censorship that Lee imposed in a bid to win the ruling Saenuri Party’s ticket to run in the National Assembly elections.

The ruling party withdrew its nomination of Lee for the April 11 National Assembly election for fears of a public uproar after the media exposed his “distortion of modern Korean history.” He had received the party’s ticket to run in the parliamentary election in Seoul’s Gangnam B electoral district.