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The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday fined a college student W1.5 million for spreading parodies through the Internet that criticized a particular party ahead of the April 15 general elections in violation of the election law.
The student identified as Shin posted a parody work last February on the internet in which he altered the face of Spiderman from the poster of the movie "Spider Man" into the face of then GNP Chairman Choe Byung-yul and drew the Japanese flag on his forehead with the phrase ¡°Pro Japanese Man¡± written under it.
He also wrote in the text, ¡°Who is the man that was born a pro-Japanese man and is blocking the passage of the law on Japanese collaborators?¡± Besides this, Shin is suspected of producing and posting some 20 political parodies on the Internet that aimed to defame GNP candidates with the phrase ¡°Be sure to cast your ballot and vote against corrupt bastards¡± added to the parodies.
The court said in its ruling, ¡°The aim of Shin¡¯s parodies goes beyond a simple satire or criticism. They were made to support or oppose a certain political party,¡± and added, ¡°Shin deserves punishment because he influenced the elections by posting parodies on the Internet that could rapidly spread certain images to a wide public.
Meanwhile, Shin said, ¡°I will take the case to a higher court because the court did not consider the freedom of expression in its ruling. Also, I plan to file a petition on the election law that restricts the freedom of expression with the Supreme Court.¡±
(Keum Won-sup, capedm@chosun.com )
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