By Kang Hyun-kyung
Police are looking for Hong Ga-hye, a civilian diver, for making groundless remarks about the Coast Guards’ rescue efforts and the people missing from the capsized ship Sewol during an interview with a TV channel.
Police have obtained an arrest warrant to detain her.
Cable TV channel MBN broadcast live on Friday an interview with Hong who introduced herself as a civilian diver who joined the Coast Guards’ rescue efforts after the ferry Sewol capsized on Wednesday.
During the interview broadcast on Friday, Hong, 26, claimed that some divers actually exchanged a few words with one of the trapped survivors during their underwater rescue activities and that there were also others who talked to some of the missing people on the phone after the ship capsized.
Then Hong quoted an unidentified government official as saying that civilian divers, who go to Jindo City to join the government-led rescue efforts, shouldn’t sweat and just leave after killing time there.
The Coastguard denied the allegations and said that none of their officials had made such remarks and that they are working closely together with civilian divers on the rescue mission.
Some internet users who claim to be familiar with Hong posted messages and personal information about her on blogs or social networking services which rapidly spread online.
MBN, a cable channel unit of Maeil Economic Daily, conducted an internal investigation of Hong and concluded that the content of her interview was not true.
The MBN newsroom chief, Lee Dong-won, offered an apology for spreading confusion among the families of the missing and rescue workers with the interview.
In the meantime, police said that some messages on Kakao Talk and other SNS allegedly sent by missing people from the capsized ship were found to be faked.
Police warned against spreading groundless rumors and allegations involving the sinking of the ship, as well as the victims and the missing people.
After the Sewol capsized, several unconfirmed messages spread rapidly around the Internet and social media.
One Facebook post, allegedly made by one of the missing people, stated that six people, including the female who wrote the message, were alive and in a cabin near a restaurant on the ship.