By Park Si-soo
The prosecution indicted the Seoul bureau chief of Japan’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper, Wednesday, for writing a controversial article allegedly defaming President Park Geun-hye.
The decision came six days after Tatsuya Kato, 48, underwent questioning for a third time at the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office. Prosecutors said his controversial article published by the mass-circulation Japanese daily on Aug. 3 constituted defamation against Korea’s head of state under the country’s Information Communication Network Act.
The Korea Times tried several times to contact a senior prosecutor in charge of the case for comment, but he didn’t answer.
The prosecution launched an investigation into the case after a conservative civic group filed a defamation suit against Sankei’s Seoul bureau over the article on Aug. 9.
The article, which cited rumors in the stock brokerage industry and in an influential Korean newspaper, alleged Park, who is single, was not at Cheong Wa Dae during a seven-hour period on the day of a deadly ferry disaster on April 16, and may have been secretly meeting with a recently divorced former aide. The presidential office has denied the allegations.
According to Japanese media, Kato was supposed to take up a new posting at Sankei’s Tokyo head office last week, but has been unable to leave Korea due to a travel ban still in place.
Early September, Reporters Without Borders, an international press advocacy group, urged the Korean government not to prosecute Kato, saying, “It is completely normal for news media to ask questions about the actions of politicians, including presidents.”