Son Hun-mo's campaign filed the complaint during the local elections
Police have decided not to refer to prosecutors a complaint filed against a local journalist by the campaign of Suncheon Mayor Son Hun-mo during the June 3 local elections, finding no criminal grounds for the charges.
A non-referral decision means police determined there was insufficient evidence of a crime to forward the case to prosecutors.
Police said the key claims in the online news article in question were consistent with objective facts, and that expressions such as "fraud show" and "reenactment certification show" used in the headline and accompanying photos amounted to no more than slight exaggeration or figurative language. "Taken as a whole, the article cannot be said to have stated false facts or to have defamed candidate Son Hun-mo," police said in their written reasoning.
Son's campaign had earlier issued a press release on May 16 identifying three instances of allegedly false reporting about the candidate and filed a complaint with the South Jeolla Province Police Agency against the newspaper's journalist on charges including publication of false facts and defamation of a candidate.
parkds@heraldcorp.com
