Civic group files complaint with Seoul police over threatening language on YouTube broadcast

Broadcaster Choi Wook. [Newsis]
Broadcaster Choi Wook. [Newsis]

Broadcaster Choi Wook, who sparked controversy after using inflammatory language targeting a specific group during a live YouTube broadcast, has been reported to police by a civic organization.

The civic group Seomin Minseong Daechaek Committee filed a complaint Tuesday with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency against Choi, host of the YouTube channel "Maebulshow," and panel guest Jeong Jun-hee, an adjunct professor in the Department of Information Society and Media at Hanyang University ERICA Campus. The complaint alleges charges including intimidation, insult, defamation and violations of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

During the "Maebulshow" broadcast on June 5, Choi referenced Ilbe — an online far-right community — and said, "Ilbe on the internet must definitely be criminalized," adding, "What they admire is Chun Doo-hwan, and in that same way, they should be rolled over online with tanks."

In the same broadcast, Professor Jeong, while discussing the rightward shift among people in their 20s and 30s, said, "It is absolutely necessary to pick up a club through legal means," and "Rather than persuading them, they must be subdued by power."

The committee argued the remarks constituted threatening language directed at a specific group. It particularly cited the recent controversy surrounding Starbucks' marketing event "Tank Day" and related boycott campaigns, saying expressions such as "roll over with tanks like Chun Doo-hwan" and "club" were highly inappropriate.

As the controversy grew, Choi issued a statement June 8 saying he "sincerely apologizes." He added, however, that "this is absolutely not an apology to the far right," keeping the dispute alive.

Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok criticized Choi, saying, "Singling out a specific group and offering physical elimination — not debate — as the solution is precisely the definition of the far right," and that "Choi has climbed exactly onto that way of thinking." Lee went on to say, "Seeing that Choi said while apologizing that 'this is not an apology to the far right,' it seems he has failed to realize to the very end that he himself is far right."


jshan@heraldcorp.com