• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.159-168
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• 2012

Freedom of speech is indispensable in Democracy. It is a rink among government agencies. Mass media as institutionalized means which forms public opinion impacts quite a few to a society. Mass media as a life media in our daily lives has characteristics of speed and prompt report. It is difficult to measure the effect on a society. Mass media is a lifeline in democracy because it has freedom of opinion for seeing, listening, speaking, and criticizing about the people's right to know in an information society. Our Constitution also guarantees freedom of the press, information(peoples's right to know), report, the collection of news, and edition. Because an unnecessary thing about a privacy is reported by mass media, it can violate defamation. This study seeks to be unbiased in reporting and what the principles of the Constitution for minimizing an invasion of a person's privacy is. This study also seeks freedom of speech and the right to know. In case that a personal honor is invaded by a mass media and a publication, this study provides the Constitution basis, Criminal Law basis, and Civic Law basis for remedy violation. A report for apology on newspaper and by television was widely used as "a proper punishment for honor recovery in the past". The constitutional court had decided that including the report of apology for "a proper punishment of honor recovery" in the article 764 of the Civic Law as a reason of freedom of conscience and the violation of personal rights was against the Constitution. Therefore, this study examples what is a legal remedy in practical?, where is legal basis of special remedy in the Civic Law, and what is a method by the Press Arbitration Law compared with the examples of other countries. On the other hand, because a mass media may injure a person's honor and infringe a person's privacy, if the report is categorized as a malicious press, the true role which mass media has to do may not demonstrated. In conclusion, this study was to minimalize infringement of mass media to a person and to seek a realistic alternative of a legal remedy.