Broadcast watchdog to review YouTube videos identifying alleged perpetrators of 2004 gang rape
Published: 11 Jun. 2024, 17:26
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- CHO JUNG-WOO
- cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr
![A list of videos that allegedly identify perpetrators and accomplices in the 2004 Miryang Case uploaded on the Narak Bogwanso, or Narak Acrchives, channel on Tuesday [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/06/11/df485c79-1be4-4985-a40d-419f10e3f3a8.jpg)
A list of videos that allegedly identify perpetrators and accomplices in the 2004 Miryang Case uploaded on the Narak Bogwanso, or Narak Acrchives, channel on Tuesday [SCREEN CAPTURE]
The Korea Communications Standards Commission on Thursday will review videos uploaded by a YouTuber who unveiled the alleged identities of perpetrators of the 2004 Miryang gang rape.
The commission said Monday it would review four videos uploaded by Narak Bogwanso, or Narak Archives, who has been uploading videos that allegedly identify the Miryang assailants since June 1.
The commission is authorized to remove videos and block access to content if needed.
The YouTuber wrote on the channel’s community page that he would continue to upload the videos regardless of the review.
As online doxxing expanded with more YouTubers joining the effort to reveal the rapists' identities, complaints and petitions were filed with the police for defamation.
According to the National Police Agency, three complaints and 13 petitions were filed with the police between last Wednesday and Friday against the YouTubers who revealed the alleged identities of the Miryang perpetrators.
The police said the complaints were filed by not only the perpetrators themselves but also individuals whose identities were revealed despite having no connection to the crime.
Another YouTuber, Panseug, uploaded a voice recording of a phone call with someone he claimed to be the victim, along with the released judgment of the case.
On Monday, however, Panseug apologized to the victim and her family after the victim's younger sister wrote that the victim did not want the identities revealed. He took down all the videos, although he questioned why the victim had video-called him and sent the judgment document.
Narak Bogwanso, who began the identity reveal, also deleted videos from his channel after criticism mounted.
The Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, an organization claiming to represent the victim, said it never agreed to the identity reveal.
However, Narak Bogwanso re-uploaded some of the videos the next day, saying that the victim's younger brother said the case should be publicly discussed.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the channel had four videos, including two identifying alleged perpetrators and two identifying alleged accomplices.
The Miryang gang rape case involved at least 44 high school students who repeatedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old middle school girl, identified by her surname Choi, over the course of a year in Miryang, South Gyeongsang, in 2004.
The number of perpetrators may have been much higher than the 44 named in the case. Both Choi's sister and cousin were also assaulted.
The assailants, born between the years of 1986 and 1988, received no criminal punishments as juveniles.
At the time, 10 of the assailants who directly took part in the sexual assault were indicted and sentenced to probation, 20 were sent to juvenile detention centers and 14 settled with the victim.
A Seoul court and the Supreme Court later also found the police guilty of negligence for mistreating the victims during the investigation.
BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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