The International Press Institute (IPI) today welcomed news that South Korea has lifted an order preventing a Japanese journalist who faces charges for allegedly defaming South Korea’s president from leaving the country.
Local media said the travel ban on former Sankei Shimbun Seoul Bureau Chief Tatsuya Kato was lifted based on “humanitarian consideration”, given the ailing health of the journalist’s mother and the eight-month separation from his family in Japan that he has already endured, Reuters reported.
Kato left South Korea following the move and arrived in Tokyo earlier today.
IPI Director of Advocacy and Communications Steven M. Ellis welcomed today’s development, but said it represented a first step.
“South Korean authorities should now follow up by dropping all charges against Mr. Kato and by moving to amend the country’s laws on defamation and insult to bring them into line with international experts’ recommendations that such offences should be addressed civil, rather than criminal, law,” he said. “Laws that punish such speech with imprisonment or that give government officials greater protection from criticism severely hamper free expression and, ultimately, the function of democracy.”