Civic group files defamation complaint against broadcaster Kim Eo-jun over claims Lee's core supporters are wavering

A civic group has filed a criminal complaint against broadcaster Kim Eo-jun, accusing him of spreading false information over his claims that President Lee Jae Myung's core support base is eroding.

Sajehaeng, a group that advocates for judicial justice, held a press conference Monday outside the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's public service office in Jongno-gu and announced it had filed a complaint against Kim. The charge: defamation through the spread of false information under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

On June 23, Kim appeared on his YouTube program "Kim Eo-jun's Humility Is Hard News Factory" and cited a Realmeter survey on President Lee's job approval rating. He claimed it represented "the first crisis since the Lee Jae Myung administration took office" and that "this is the core supporters dropping off."

He continued in a similar vein on a June 25 broadcast, saying, "This is different from a typical approval rating decline — the core supporters are wavering," and adding, "If the core support base collapses as it did under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, results alone won't fix it."

Sajehaeng rebuffed those claims, saying there was "no objective basis in any statistical figures on presidential approval ratings from polling organizations including Gallup Korea to support Kim Eo-jun's assertion that support among the Democratic Party's core base has fallen in any meaningful way."

The group also argued that Kim's remarks were intended to disparage President Lee and Prime Minister Kim Min-seok by suggesting they were acting against the values of the Democratic Party's core supporters. It said Kim did so by framing their delay of prosecution reform — including the complete abolition of prosecutors' supplementary investigative powers — as a betrayal, and that his statements "significantly damaged the social reputations and honor of President Lee and Prime Minister Kim."