There Is No Freedom to Incite Hatred

People Power Party lawmaker Lee Jin-sook’s repeated attacks on the May 18 Democratic Uprising have gone beyond historical disagreement, the Hankyoreh’s journalism accountability office argues. Her conduct, the column says, shows why public officials must not be allowed to use freedom of expression as cover for inciting hatred.

Lee co-hosted a forum at the National Assembly Library with the New History National Movement, an organization that has repeatedly disparaged and distorted May 18. The group describes Gwangju as controlled by regressive populist and nationalist forces and uses “liberation of Gwangju” as a central platform. Its program also calls Gwangju a den of dark forces leading the country toward ruin.

At the forum, speakers described the events in May 1980 as a “10-day riot,” called for dismantling what they termed the left’s monopoly over May 18’s cultural power, and argued that the issue should be isolated externally and divided internally. Other claims blamed pro-North Korean forces for portraying Chun Doo-hwan as a massacre perpetrator and described Honam and those forces as mutually protective. Lee delivered welcoming remarks and later defended the event by invoking freedom of expression and the need for historical debate.

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10-day riot

The column rejects that framing. The Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that Gwangju citizens had acted legitimately to defend the constitutional order and that the military authorities had violently suppressed them. In a ruling this February concerning Chun’s memoirs, the court also found false claims that citizens had armed themselves first and that martial-law troops had fired in self-defense. Courts have reached similar conclusions in civil and criminal cases involving claims that North Korean soldiers infiltrated Gwangju, while several state investigations produced the same result.

The accountability office notes that the People Power Party’s own charter pledges to carry forward the spirit of modern democratic movements, including May 18. It says Lee continued sharing a video calling May 18 a riot even after criticism intensified. The column supports efforts by 13 human-rights groups to seek legislation addressing hate speech by senior officials, arguing that freedom of expression should not become “a shield protecting the hate incitement of those who hold public power.”

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A shield protecting the hate incitement of those who hold public power.