Our public shame

Police have begun their investigation into the shameful and disgusting act by some members of a website to release information about a female teacher at an island school in Sinan County, South Jeolla, who was raped by three locals.

Five members of the extreme right-wing community site Ilgan tried to hunt down the victim and dig up information about her, but they instead wound up posting another person’s picture.

The group posted a picture of another teacher at the same elementary school after receiving a false tip that the victim was a part-timer.
The teacher, having learned that her picture was being paraded on the internet as the victim of rape filed charges against the people who posted and circulated her picture for violating the privacy code of the telecommunications network law.

She handed in her resignation after suffering serious psychological pain from the incident.

The sexual assault of a young teacher on remote duty was a crime that stunned and angered the entire nation. The act of chasing down and exposing information about the victim is as debased and ghastly as the sexual violation of an innocent and vulnerable person.

They have disgraced and aggravated the pain of the victim who must be in unimaginable anguish.

They have also disgraced and damaged another person by digging up information on them and making false accusations. The group has shamefully wronged the teachers who have agreed to transfer to a remote place entirely on the basis of a commitment to and pride in their profession.

The suspects must be gravely punished to raise public awareness on the price of social indecency. They should be hit with the strongest possible sentences. The people who hit “like” buttons on social media should also be punished.

The government should also clamp down on slanderous activities within the online community. Human dignity must not be ridiculed and violated. The online groups should correct themselves to stop with these reckless exposure practices.

The incident should be a tipping point to clean up the e-community.

JoongAng Ilbo, June 17, Page 34