A man in his 30s who repeatedly posted YouTube videos claiming that a woman using a disabled parking space with her young child, who has a brain lesion disability, had parked illegally has received a suspended prison sentence in his first trial.
Judge Chu Jin-seok of the Seoul Eastern District Court's criminal division sentenced Jung, 35, to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, on Sept. 8 on charges of defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act and violating the Personal Information Protection Act, according to legal circles on the 21st.
Jung spotted A's vehicle at a parking lot in Seoul's Gangdong district in December last year and reported it as illegally parked, claiming the national merit recipient vehicle sticker was invalid. But A was accompanied by her young child, who has a brain lesion disability, and the vehicle displayed a disabled parking permit marked "guardian parking permitted." The national merit recipient sticker also showed it had been issued in 2020.
Following the report, A received a prior notice of disposition for a 100,000-won fine. This did not mean the fine had been finalized; it was a notice giving her an opportunity to submit her position before any disposition. After A explained the circumstances, the notice was canceled on Jan. 8.
A submitted her story to a broadcast program to publicize what she saw as an injustice. In the process, it also became known that she had visited a department store culture center and that she had a young child diagnosed with a brain lesion disability.
Jung, however, posted a rebuttal video on his YouTube channel on Dec. 26 last year asserting that A had been fined for illegal parking. He also used in the video a screenshot of the prior notice of disposition, which he had obtained through an information disclosure request filed with the Gangdong district office's disability welfare division on the 22nd of the same month.
The disclosed screen included personal information such as the date and location of A's parking, the last three digits of her license plate number and a photo of the vehicle sticker. Jung displayed the screen on YouTube four times in total, through Jan. 9, the day after the prior notice was canceled.
The court noted the wide reach of videos posted on a channel with more than 300,000 subscribers. "It is not easy for a person whose privacy has been violated through video to recover from the harm," the court said, finding that Jung had damaged the victim's reputation and disclosed her personal information on four occasions.
The court also said the nature of the offense was "very serious," citing the fact that Jung had committed the offense again despite having been punished several times in the past for defamation or insult through YouTube.
The court did, however, take into account as mitigating factors that Jung acknowledged the facts and asked A for forgiveness, that he had attempted to obscure some personal information in the videos, and that he had committed the offense somewhat impulsively and carelessly while responding to a broadcast critical of him.
Prosecutors appealed the first-trial ruling, filing a notice of appeal on the 14th.
