Reporter countersues Lee Mi-sook
Lee Mi-sook
The journalist, surnamed Yu, was sued by Lee for libel in January 2012 after reporting that Lee had an “inappropriate relationship” with a male host 17 years her junior.
Lee recently dropped the suit, but Yu is fighting back.
“Lee distributed a press release with false information to local media from May to July last year in which [Lee] falsely argued that [Yu] repeated what was alleged by her former management agency,” Yu said in a petition filed yesterday with prosecutors. “This is libel as Lee distributed false information to slander [Yu].”
Yu also said that Lee earlier filed a legal petition to avoid public blame for dating a younger man.
“Lee knew the media report was true, but she filed a petition [for the libel suit] to shift blame from herself,” Yu said.
In an initial ruling, a court said Lee had insufficient evidence to file suit against Yu, and the actress soon dropped the case.
By Lee Sun-min
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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