23 additional artists file suit against ex-president

By Kim Se-jeong

Twenty-three artists on Monday filed a compensation lawsuit against former President Park Geun-hye for being rejected from government funding due to their anti-government inclinations, according to the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (LDS), Tuesday.

That made the total number of artists in the suit 484. In February, 461 artists filed the compensation lawsuit.

According to the lawyers’ group, the 23 filed the suit at the Seoul Central District Court, demanding 1 million won for each artist claiming that the government violated their basic rights by suppressing their freedom of expression. Besides former President Park, the artists accused eight others, including Kim Ki-choon, Park’s former chief of staff and Cho Yoon-sun, former culture minister.

“What the government did with the blacklist was a serious illegal act violating the basic rights written in the Constitution,” said the LDS. “We believe the decision resulted in financial losses for each plaintiff also.”

The list came to light amid the influence-peddling scandal last year involving the president and her confidant Choi Soon-sil. Almost 10,000 were believed to be on the blacklist. Their funding applications were rejected and they were discriminated against in government-led art projects.

The full list was never revealed, but a partially-revealed version contained prominent artists, such as poet Ko Un and novelist Han Kang.

Park, Kim and Cho initially denied the existence of it but later were charged with brainstorming, drafting the list and implementing it to discriminate against them.