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영어

Protection of Politician’s Honor on Criminal Law Yoon, Sang-Min This study is intended to point out that protecting politician’s honor shall be viewed from the standpoint of freedom of expression and the right to know. Evaluation of the issue of protecting politician’s honor according to the decision by the Constitutional Court or the Supreme Court indicated the need of applying other rights than the way of protecting the honor of ordinary citizens. Thus legislation limiting the protection of politician’s honor must be reasonable. The scope of criminal defamation relating to the politician or public figure may be reduced according to the interpretation by the court, but solving by legislative action would be desirable, which is also rational in preventing the court from making arbitrary decision. From legislative viewpoint, criminal defamation shall not be established as long as the truth is proved. Moreover, proving false information would have to be the responsibility of the plaintiff (Prosecutor) as the actual malice rule in the United States.