Woman fined again for exposing affair with married ex-boyfriend in web novel

A woman who exposed her affair with a married man in the form of a web novel after he ended their relationship has been fined again, this time by an appeals court.

According to LawTalk News on Wednesday, an appellate court upheld the lower court's ruling and fined the woman, identified as A, 1 million won ($746). She had been convicted on charges of intimidation and violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

A had dated B, a married man, for about four months starting in January 2017.

But after B told her in early May of that year that he wanted to end the relationship and stopped responding to her, A began sending him threatening messages through KakaoTalk.

"Would you like to read an interesting story?" she wrote, referring in detail to the restaurant B ran and his family situation, before threatening, "I will hand out flyers."

A's actions did not stop there. A few days later, she logged onto Naver's "web novel" board and posted a fictionalized account of her relationship with B.

Over five separate posts, she included B's personal information in full, along with his vehicle's license plate number and part of his spouse's phone number.

The lower court found A guilty on all charges and fined her 1 million won.

A appealed, arguing that the lower court had misjudged the facts and misapplied the law. She said that posting the web novel was meant to serve the public interest — to prevent other women from being hurt by getting involved with B, who was married. She added that she had no intent to defame him.

The appeals court, however, reached the same conclusion. It said the content A posted did not concern a matter of public interest but was purely a private matter.

"The disclosed facts included information not only about the victim himself but also about his spouse and children," the court said. "Given that she used demeaning language about the victim on a bulletin board accessible to an unspecified number of people, an intent to defame is recognized."