Controversy is growing over the second offense (the act of leaking victim information or defaming the victim’s reputation) as a lawyer for Hwang Ui-jo (31), who is investigated for allegations of illegal filming, revealed the victim’s marital status and occupation. According to existing precedents, the court convicts that “the identity can be specified just by revealing the victim’s job,” but it is pointed out that similar cases are repeated because the punishment is not heavy.
Earlier on the 21st, the law firm, which was Hwang Ui-jo’s legal representative, disclosed some of the victim’s personal information in a statement, saying, “The other woman is a public figure in broadcasting and is now even married.” 안전놀이터
Then, Lee Eun-ui, a lawyer for the victim, said, “The victim has extreme anxiety and fear about his identity being known, and the perpetrator (Hwang Ui-jo) knows this better than anyone else,” and argued, “We have no choice but to interpret it as intimidation and pressure toward the victim.” In particular, another victim who was about to be consulted said that he suddenly canceled the consultation after seeing Hwang Ui-jo’s statement, and criticized, “He is covering the mouth of additional victims (through intimidation).”
The legal community says that even disclosing the victim’s identity to this extent could violate the current law. The Sexual Violence Punishment Act prohibits the disclosure of “victim’s address, name, age, occupation, school, appearance, and other personal information and photos that enable the identification of victims,” and stipulates that violations will result in up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won.
In fact, the court punishes only disclosing the victim’s “job.” A case in point is a case in which a police officer who informed a suspect who was urgently arrested on special rape charges that his “victim’s job was a lawyer” was convicted by the Supreme Court. At the time, the court made it clear that it could be punished for leaking or disclosing jobs, saying, “The Sexual Violence Punishment Act stipulates names and occupations in parallel.” He also pointed out that “lawyers do not have a relatively large number compared to other occupational groups,” adding, “If data released in the media are combined, it can be easier to identify victims.” Since the intersection of △ marriage △ broadcaster disclosed by Hwang Ui-jo is limited, this case is also not unlikely to be guilty if prosecuted.
A senior prosecutor at the Seoul Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office, who has a lot of experience in investigating women’s children’s crimes, pointed out, “The general public may not know well about their jobs and marital status, but at least the acquaintances around them must have found out who was the victim.” He added, “As the purpose of the law is to protect victims from returning to their daily lives, it seems that criminal punishment is possible.”
The repeated incidents are related to the fact that the perpetrators often use tactics to discredit the victims’ statements by smearing them. However, the phenomenon in which the perpetrators are only lightly punished in trials even if they are actually prosecuted is pointed out as the reason for this second wave of abuse.
Kim Min-woong, a former professor at Kyung Hee University’s Future Civilization Institute who was previously accused of posting the victim’s name on social networking services (SNS) in the former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s sex crime case, was sentenced to six months in prison and one year of probation in the first trial. Kim Jae-ryeon, a lawyer who defended the victim at the time, pointed out, “The reality is that even if the victim’s real name is disclosed, it is only a soft punishment,” adding, “As the wrong social signals continue, even lawyers are making secondary attacks without being alert.”
