South Korea - Seoul-based Japanese reporter accused of defaming South Korea's president

Reporters without borders

Sankei Shimbun's correspondent is facing a possible seven-year jail term. Tatsuya Kato, a Japanese journalist who is the Tokyo newspaper Sankei Shimbun's Seoul correspondent, is the subject of a criminal libel prosecution over a story about South Korean President Park Geun-hye's actions at the time of Sewol ferry's sinking on 16 April. The newspaper had no inkling that Kato's story would elicit such a heavy-handed reaction from the president's supporters when it was posted online on 3 August. (...)

© Reporters sans frontières - lundi 8 septembre 2014