Medical groups call on government to stop prosecuting 'blacklist' creator

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Medical groups call on government to stop prosecuting 'blacklist' creator

Published: 22 Sep. 2024, 18:25

MICHAEL LEE
lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr

A junior doctor, identified only by his surname Jeong, is escorted by police out of the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, after attending his arrest warrant review on Friday. The court later approved an arrest warrant against Jeong, who is accused of compiling a list of junior doctors who have not joined their colleagues' mass walkout to protest the government's plan to increase annual medical recruitment. [NEWS1]

Medical associations demanded over the weekend that the government cease its efforts to prosecute a junior doctor who created a so-called blacklist of trainees who have refused to join a mass walkout by their colleagues to protest the government's plan to increase the annual medical school admissions quota.

On Friday, the Seoul Central District Court approved an arrest warrant for the author of the blacklist, identified only by his surname Jeong, on charges of violating the Act on Punishment of Stalking Crimes by creating and repeatedly distributing an online list of doctors who did not join the strike or returned to hospitals.

The court said Jeong had exhibited malicious intent by creating the list, which both named doctors who are not on strike and included their phone numbers and other personal details.

But Lim Hyun-taek, the president of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), called Jeong a target of government persecution in comments to reporters after visiting him in jail at the Seoul Seongbuk Police Station on Saturday.

Lim Hyun-taek, the president of the Korean Medical Association, speaks to reporters outside the Seoul Seongbuk Police Station after visiting the junior doctor who was arrested on suspicion of creating a so-called blacklist of trainees who have not joined their colleagues' mass walkout from hospitals since February. [NEWS1]

Calling both Jeong and the people whose identities he exposed online “victims of the government’s making,” Lim blamed the Yoon Suk Yeol administration for “driving a wedge” between junior doctors on opposite sides of the picket fence.

Lim also said the KMA, which is the country’s largest doctors’ lobbying group, would support both Jeong and the people he allegedly doxxed.

Lim’s characterization of Jeong as a victim of state persecution appears to be a view shared by other doctors.

On Friday, the Gyeonggi Medical Association held a rally in the Itaewon neighborhood of Yongsan District, central Seoul, to protest “the violation of junior doctors’ human rights” in reference to Jeong’s arrest.

The group argued that “freedom of expression is the cornerstone of a free democratic country” and claimed that the government “is committing a North Korea-style human rights violation” by prosecuting Jeong, whose blacklist they called “a restrained expression” of his opposition to the government’s policies.

In a separate statement, the Seoul Medical Association called Jeong’s blacklist a “method to resist the government’s extrajudicial measures” and criticized the Yoon administration for “asking doctors to engage in dialogue while simultaenously threatening them with criminal prosecution.”

However, some individual medical professionals have criticized Jeong for creating the blacklist.

Prof. Kang Hee-gyung of Seoul National University Medical School wrote in a Facebook post on Sept. 15 that “those who created this so-called blacklist should be deeply ashamed and reflect upon themselves,” adding that the list’s existence made her “question whether trainee doctors felt they were able to make up their own minds” before they walked out from their hospitals.

She criticized junior doctors “who believe their behavior differs somehow from the government’s heavy-handed approach” as “grossly delusional” and warned that their actions “will only lead others to regard medical groups as criminal associations and close their ears to doctors’ arguments” against the government’s planned quota increase.

On Saturday, Kang uploaded another post to Facebook where she suggested that Jeong should be regarded as “the perpetrator of online group bullying,” but also questioned whether his arrest fell within legal bounds.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said in an interview with KBS on Sunday that the government could revise the number of spots it plans to add to the 2026 medical school admissions quota if doctors’ groups propose a “reasonable alternative.”

“Since the medical community has criticized the government’s proposed increase of 2,000 as an ‘unscientific’ figure, we would like to know what they think is a well-informed admissions quota,” he said.

While the government plans to increase annual medical recruitment by 1,500 spots next year and 2,000 spots by 2026, the KMA and other doctors’ groups have demanded the government first scrap its admissions hikes for 2025 and 2026 before negotiating potential increases for 2027 and after.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]