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[mack4289]

An update: Today's (June 11th) JA Daily published an article about Joe McPherson. So let me clean this up a little: the first thing you're going to see here is important contact information. After that will be the Korean Herald article about Joe McPherson's case. Then will be a letter I wrote to the JA Daily about the libel laws. Last will be today's (June 11th) article about Joe McPherson.

Korea Migrant Workers Human Rights
email: [email protected]

Seoul Migrants Workers Center
email: [email protected]

Amnesty International Korea
email: [email protected]


Joe's Congressional Rep: http://bonner.house.gov/HoR/AL01/Contact+Jo/Email+Jo/Contact+Me.htm?zip5=36533. You have to fudge an Alabama address to send something to him.

Joe's Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=AL

Joe's Governor: http://www.governor.state.al.us/contact/contact_form.aspx

The Korean Ministry of Labor: [email protected]

an address somehow tied to both the Korean Ministry of Immigration and Justice: [email protected]


Nori Onishi, the New York Times Asia bureau chief based in Tokyo
[email protected]


email the New York Times: [email protected]

International Herald Tribune: [email protected]

Joong Ang Daily: [email protected]

To contact the LA Times, you have to go their website: http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-foreign-cf2,0,1628335.customform?sId=World%20News

Contact people in the US government: http://www.usa.gov/Contact.shtml

Contact US embassy in Seoul: [email protected]:

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https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/05/09/200705090020.asp

Is 'publish and be damned' a wise choice?

"Korea's laws on libel are confusing and open to abuse," one of the lawyer's contacted for this article told The Korea Herald, "they are a weapon that can be used by innocent victims of media abuse, and equally they can be used as a shield to protect the guilty, often allowing them to commit repeat offenses."

And falling foul of these laws is so easy, as American Joe McPherson is finding out.

McPherson, is an English teacher, writer, and a well-known and respected blogger. His blog, "ZenKimchi" has been extensively quoted around the world, and is full of useful and interesting facts about Korea, especially Korean food.
In the words of fellow blogger, Michael Hurt from "Metropolitician," Joe is a good guy. "He's got much love for Korea, as evidenced by his site, his love of Korean food (he has even been interviewed by The New York Times), and has done much to extol the virtues of Korean food to both Westerners who come here as well as to the outside world. He has even been in a book talking about all the great things Korea has to offer."

McPherson certainly doesn't seem to fit what is largely an unfair stereotype image so often portrayed in the local media of an unqualified language-tourist, just here for the money, the parties and the girls. Yet, he is now facing the possibility of a law suit for alleged libel. If a fine of more than 2 million won is imposed, he could also face the prospect of deportation.

"Somehow, if an employer doesn't pay you your wages or severance, or takes money from your paycheck without explaining or having you agree to it, they can pretty much get away with it," McPherson wrote, "even if you win your case (at the Labor Department and civil court) there is little legal framework to force the employer to pay you."

In July 2006 McPherson filed a complaint against his hagwon for failure to pay his end-of-contract severance money.

"In August the Labor Board determined that the hagwon had to pay me everything I was due," McPherson said, "It came to about 6 million won, so we are not talking about a small amount of money here."

But having an official and legal piece of paper saying you are due this money, and then actually getting the money, are two quite different things.
In February 2007 McPherson finally went to civil court, where the judge not only upheld the Labor Board decision, but awarded McPherson a further 2 million won, bringing the total to 8 million won. The hagwon is still refusing to pay, and has lodged an appeal. An end to the process is nowhere in sight.

"Yet if you want to complain about it on the internet, which is often the only venue for us, it's a crime," McPherson told The Korea Herald, "I received notice that the hagwon filed a complaint and I am being investigated by the police for criminal libel."

Brendon Carr, a foreign legal consultant with law firm Hwang Mok Park, had some striking comments on Korea's libel laws. "Unlike the United States, Korea does not exalt free speech as a constitutional right," Carr told The Korea Herald, "however, the Korean Constitution does recognize a right to reputation. In other words, reputation enjoys higher standing under Korean law than free speech. This same idea is common in European countries; America is unique in the degree to which speech is protected. It's possible that Korea is unique in the degree to which reputation is protected."

Essentially, the terms of Article 309 of the Korea Criminal Code say that writing something that can hurt the reputation of another, irregardless of whether or not it is true, can leave the writer/publisher open to prosecution.
"The Art. 309 is basically a club by which the government and business interests muzzle the press." Carr said, "more than 100 criminal complaints are lodged each year against press outlets, and hundreds of cases go to the Communications Ethics Board for non-criminal resolution of disputes. Accordingly, the press here is much more cautious about reporting things where the identities of the wrongdoers may be discovered."

However, the criminal code does include the following exception contained in its Article 310: If the facts published are true and disclosed solely for the public interest, the act of publishing shall not be punishable.
Currently this privilege does not extend to bloggers on the internet.

"Truth is only a defense for the press, not for the general citizenry. And the publisher must prove the disclosure was solely for the public interest," Carr said, "and this is where most of them get punished."

The Korea Herald outlined a couple of possible story scenarios relating to cases such as McPherson's, and 'hagwons from hell." Carr had these words of caution, "The Art. 310 exception of 'public interest' is much narrower than you think. My own judgment is that there is no public interest served by telling the story of the hagwon from hell."

English teachers, Carr said, "are not 'the public' -- they are a small segment of it. The rest of the public has no interest in being warned about how these hagwons may or may not treat their foreign employees."

The Korea Herald would be forced to disagree. Estimates vary slightly on the number of foreigners working legally as English teachers here in Korea, but each and every one of them comes into contact with thousands of Korean children on a daily or weekly basis.

A teacher who is being victimized or treated unfairly by a hagwon is an unhappy and disgruntled teacher. No matter how professional that teacher may be under normal circumstances, when they are being cheated out of their lawful earnings, when they feel they are being let down by the legal system, then their performance will obviously suffer. A distracted teacher is a poor teacher, and consequently the students will suffer too.

According to some estimates, Korean students spend over 15 trillion won ($16 billion) a year on private English classes. This is based on 11.2 million students spending an average of 1.2 million won a year for classes in hagwons or private English teachers. Korea spent the most on private education in 2006 among the 30-member OECD, accounting for 2.9 percent of GDP.

A Labor Department official recently told The Korea Herald that she saw "so many English teachers" in her office, and said hagwons -- "the bad ones" -- knew how to manipulate the system. "The process takes so long, many English teachers eventually just give up," she said. "The law needs to be changed. Hagwons must be held accountable."

It is, therefore, impossible to consider the case of English teachers in a vacuum, saying they are only a minority segment of "the public." They are a significant minority who come into contact with, as we have just mentioned, more than 11 million students on a daily basis, and are in the front line of a multi-trillion won industry. Consequently, anything that happens to these teachers, especially if it is at the hands of unscrupulous hagwon owners, and if it has the potential to affect the quality of the education they provide, then it should most certainly be of paramount public interest.

Parents certainly have the right to know if the hagwon that has enrolled their children, that is taking their money and promising a quality education, is or has been involved in legal disputes with its teachers. A hagwon that shows little respect for its teachers, and even less respect to orders from the court, is unlikely to show much respect to its students or their parents.
By Chris Gelken


([email protected])

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2875725

Korea�s libel laws punish the victim

May 21, 2007
A good measure of a law�s effectiveness is to ask yourself, �Who does it help and who does it target?� Evaluating Korea�s libel laws makes it very clear that they offer protection to those who should be targeted and target those who need protection.

Korea�s libel laws often place a higher value on maintaining reputations than on speaking the truth. So who do these sorts of laws protect? A few examples:
1. People like Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, who, according to your newspaper, could not be immediately identified as a suspect in an assault case �due to Korea�s strict media laws.�
2. Kim�s bodyguard, who is charging a police officer who spoke to the media about the case with libel.
3. A hagwon owner who refused to pay Joe McPherson, an American teacher in Korea, the 6 million won the Korean Labor Board ruled he was owed. When he wrote about it on his blog, ZenKimchi, the owner charged him with criminal libel.

Now look at the above examples and ask yourself, �Who do these laws target?� Members of the media attempting to report an important case, a police officer informing the media about the case and a teacher who was cheated out of his wages.

Good laws protect honest people and punish the corrupt. Korea�s libel laws do the exact opposite and so they need to be changed.

Mike Mackenna, Yongin, Gyeonggi


http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2876587

Truth is no defense from libel trap

June 11, 2007
In the expatriate community, tales of foreign teachers not being paid by their hagwon, or private language institutes, are all too familiar. Some teachers even end up filing cases with regional labor offices to get their money, in what can be a long, drawn-out process.
What�s less common is for teachers to be sued for libel when they go public trying to help others avoid their fate.
But it does happen, and the teacher may suddenly find himself at risk of deportation, which can happen if a fine of more than 2 million won ($2,156) is imposed by the court. In this situation, getting the unpaid salary is hardly the priority it once was.
Joe McPherson, a 33-year-old American, claims to be one of the victims of this �absurd� situation.
In July 2006, the English teacher filed a complaint against his former hagwon, located in Anyang, south of Seoul, for what he says was failure to pay his one-month bonus and severance money. The following month, the regional labor office covering Gyeonggi Province and Incheon determined that the hagwon had to pay him around 6.3 million won. Six months later, the Suwon District Court upheld the labor office decision and ruled that McPherson was owed, with interest, about 8.1 million won.
McPherson, who now works for another hagwon and is also a part-time teacher on EBSi, the state-funded education TV channel, said he wrote online about the legal measures he took against the hagwon so that other teachers would find it easier to take action if they encountered a similar problem.
But the hagwon owner responded by filing a libel suit in April. The cyber crime division of the Anyang Police Precinct summoned McPherson for investigation and plans to bring him in again soon.
�It was not my intention to harm the hagwon because that would make it harder for them to pay my money,� McPherson said. �It was purely in the public interest. I used the name of the hagwon just to keep things honest.�
The hagwon owner, surnamed Lee, said she filed the libel suit because the teacher defamed the hagwon with a �lie.�
�I paid all the money,� she said. �Joe harmed my hagwon, describing it and me as unscrupulous. I wish the truth were that I didn�t pay the money. Then I would just pay and things will be settled. But it is not true, so I am going to all this trouble to put things right.�
She has also appealed against the court decision to pay the money owed to McPherson. According to the Suwon District Court, the appeal will be heard at the end of the year.
Andrea Mohammed, an English teacher from Canada, said the McPherson case reveals how libel suits in Korea can work against foreign teachers, whom she claims are already suffering from lack of legal protection.
�I think most teachers would say that the system really works in favor of hagwon employers,� she said. �The fact that the owner could legally file the suit shows that the system is in favor of hagwon owners.�
Mohammed said the libel law is robbing foreign teachers of virtually the only measure they have to protect themselves from unscrupulous hagwon owners.
�Sometimes maybe teachers are just bad, but other times, when you see more than one teacher complaining about the same school, you can guess that�s probably true,� she said. �So, some teachers are trying to let other teachers know about it. Generally that�s what teachers will do because there�s really nothing else for us to do.�
She also said getting legal aid here is almost impossible because it takes a lot of time and effort.
�We could go through the Korean labor office, but it takes so long, with so many language barriers, that most of us will not go through it, only because we know we are not going to be here for the long term,� she said. �They [hagwon owners] know that we are migrant workers, we will leave, so we are not going to fight so hard.�
John Sagnella, an American, is one of the hagwon teachers who balked at what he calls an �uphill battle� to reclaim his money.
He said the owner of his former hagwon, in Seoul, didn�t pay him 3 million won. He just gave up and moved to another hagwon three years ago, seeing no chance of getting the money back.
�I was afraid of filing a complaint because I am not a Korean. Koreans win, and foreigners lose, and that�s pretty much established,� Sagnella said. �And I was threatened by the guy, that he would give me a hard time and try to kick me out of the country if I filed a complaint.�
Brendon Carr, a U.S. lawyer working for the local firm Hwang Mok Park, said the Korean law on libel limits freedom of speech.
In many other countries, including the United States, truth is a defense against libel, but not in Korea.
The terms of Article 307 of the Korean Criminal Code say those who defame others by publicizing things that are true are liable to face up to 2 years in prison or a 5 million won fine. Those writing things that are not true face up to five years in prison or a 10 million won fine.
�The Korean Constitution recognizes a right to reputation, but does not recognize absolute freedom of speech,� Carr said. �Americans do not believe there should be a limit on people�s right to say things which are true, but embarrassing. [In the United States] defamation is never a crime; it�s only a civil matter. So, for Americans living in Korea, they are frequently stunned to discover that it�s a crime under Korean law.�
The Korean Criminal Code is, however, not without a clause to protect people working in the public interest.
According to Article 310, if the facts published are true and disclosed solely for the public interest, the act of publishing the information is not punishable.
McPherson said that is why he believes he will be vindicated.
�Someone may be convicted and given a nothing sentence. You could pay some 50,000 won,� Carr said of McPherson�s case, on the assumption that the teacher is speaking the truth.
�In principle, it�s in keeping with the law. But it amounts to a judge�s recognition that it would be unfair to punish somebody for reporting something that is true.�
Tae Ji-young, a former prosecutor, admitted that people tend to abuse libel suits, but said the law serves its purpose and should not be changed. �Regardless of whether they did wrong or not, many of those who file a libel suit think they were defamed,� Tae said. �So it would be wrong to rob them of the legal chance to clear their names.�
Tae, now a private lawyer, said it is up to police and prosecutors to properly handle libel suits.
�In order for the accused in a libel suit to be convicted, there should be plenty of evidence to prove the accused had the intent to defame the accuser,� she said. �So I think most of the cases involving those who published something for the public interest would be dropped if the police and the prosecution did their part in the investigation.�
Cho Kuk, a criminal law professor at Seoul National University, disagrees.
He believes there should be a change in law to protect those who are truly serving the public interest.
The professor said it may be too early in Korea to abolish the terms of Article 307, but he said legal experts see the need to apply Article 310 of the Korean Criminal Code in broader ways.
�Article 310 is only used in limited cases and many of those publishing for the public interest still face the risk of conviction for libel,� Cho said. �Many law professors and legal experts are discussing this, and I wish we could have more leeway in interpreting and applying the article to protect the public interest.�


By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Writer [[email protected]]