People Power Party Youth Supreme Council member Woo Jae-jun speaks at a press conference denouncing historical distortion in the film "The Assassin" in front of the Park Chung-hee Presidential Memorial Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Oct. 14. [Yonhap]
People Power Party Youth Supreme Council member Woo Jae-jun speaks at a press conference denouncing historical distortion in the film "The Assassin" in front of the Park Chung-hee Presidential Memorial Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Oct. 14. [Yonhap]

Lawyers for a Democratic Society has criticized the political pressure surrounding the film "The Assassin" as "a clear infringement on the freedom of artistic expression and speech guaranteed by the Constitution."

The group's culture, arts and sports committee issued a statement Friday saying the film had faced "unprecedented pressure for more than a month" and calling on politicians to "stop the offensive against creators and their work and return judgment to the audience."

The group said Article 22, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the arts, while Article 21, Paragraph 1 protects freedom of expression, adding that these provisions are "fundamentally about the freedom of creators to decide their own participation in a work and to present it before an audience."

The statement said that when lawmakers — who hold the power to conduct national audits and demand documents — call for summoning creators over a work's historical interpretation, they are "directly violating this constitutional prohibition." It added that such actions amount to "a revived blacklist, combining public authority with collective pressure."

The group also called on the government and police to halt pressure exerted through official authority and to actively enforce legal protections against acts that threaten creators' daily lives — including demonstrations outside their homes and the exposure of personal information — while also reforming the relevant legal system.

"Criticism of a work must be freely permitted, and the grief of bereaved families must also be respected — but the target of criticism should be the work, not the person," the statement said. The group vowed to "resolutely confront, as legal professionals, any attempt to infringe on the freedom of art and expression."


arin@heraldcorp.com