By Kim Se-jeong
A human rights panel plans to investigate alleged secret surveillance of Lotte Giants baseball players by the club’s management.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)’s announcement came Friday, with the revelations causing a huge uproar among baseball fans.
“We’ve decided to investigate the case because it appears highly likely the human rights of Giants players were abused by the Giants staff and executives,” an NHRC official said.
On Thursday, the team’s CEO Choi Ha-jin and General Manager Bae Jae-hu offered to resign amid growing protests by angry fans in Busan, where the team is based.
“I feel responsible for what happened to our team. I would like to apologize to our fans and all players of this team,” Choi said.
Choi and Bae reportedly ordered the team’s staff to monitor players using surveillance cameras at hotels where they slept on road trips between April and June.
When coaches and players first raised the allegations, management officials denied their involvement, but said afterwards that it was necessary to monitor the night lives of some players because their behavior affected the team’s performance.
NHRC spokesman Lee Jae-jin said the surveillance was illegal and constituted a “grave matter.”
“The commission has a mandate to take up cases that happen in the public sector only, but this could be an exception,” Lee said. “This is because the issue was raised by Rep. Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party.”
Speaking to journalists on Nov. 5, Rep. Sim charged that Choi, the ex-CEO, was behind the illegal surveillance.
She claimed the CEO got videos from eight different hotels recorded between 1a.m. and 7 a.m. on various dates.
Lee said the investigation will be carried out through reviewing papers submitted by the Giants, as well as visiting the team. The visit will take place within two weeks, she said.
Lee indicated that the commission may widen its probe into overall privacy violations in the entire sports sector.
“This is another reason why we have chosen to look into the case. We’ve been paying attention to this subject,” Lee said.
The commission will release policy recommendations at the end of the investigation and address them to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2010, the commission recommended that the ministry adopt human rights guideline for athletes.
Calling for the management’s resignation, hundreds of fans have staged rallies outside Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan.