GNP lawmaker ordered to pay compensation to unionized teachers

(ATTN: CORRECTS number of released names in para 3, ADDS union response in last 3 paras)
SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Tuesday ordered a conservative ruling party lawmaker to pay 340 million won (US$323,501) in compensation to members of a progressive teachers' labor union over his illegal disclosure of the group's membership list.
The Seoul Central District Court delivered the verdict, ordering Grand National Party (GNP) lawmaker Cho Jun-hyuk to pay 100,000 won each to about 3,400 member teachers of the Korean Teachers & Education Workers' Union (KTU).
The teachers' union filed the damages suit against the lawmaker who posted a list of about 60,000 teachers and other education workers who are members of the left-leaning teachers' union, known for its support of anti-Americanism and promotion of pro-North Korea ideology.
Cho posted the membership list on his official Internet homepage in April last year, defying another district court's previous decision in a separate court case. Cho obtained the list from the education ministry using his status as a lawmaker.
Cho deleted the posted list within a few days as the highest court ordered him to pay massive fines for disobeying the court ruling, leading the teachers' union to demand compensation for Cho's violation of their privacy regarding their personal information, as well as their freedom of assembly.
"The unlimited disclosure of the KTU membership list on the Internet hardly justifies (Cho's claim that it was released) to satisfy parents' right to know about their children's educators," Judge Han Kyu-hyun said. In this case, member teachers' rights to control the release of their personal information and their freedom of assembly override parents' rights to know about the teachers, he said.
In the same ruling, the Seoul court also ordered Donga.com, the online version of the local daily newspaper Dong-A llbo, to compensate the member teachers for releasing Cho's list. The company was ordered to pay 80,000 per person, or a total of about 270 million won.
The latest court decision comes as the militant KTU increases its confrontations with the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration, which is pushing a series of competition-promoting education policies in classrooms.
Founded as an unauthorized labor gathering in 1989, it was granted legal status under the liberal Kim Dae-jung administration in 1999. The union faces opposition from some parents and education industry people who criticize the union's political activism, which they say introduces unhealthy elements into children's education.


In response to the court ruling, the KTU said, "The verdict confirmed the belief that lawmakers' and media's unrestrained disclosure of teachers' personal information cannot be allowed."
The union said it will pursue a similar damages suit against nine other GNP members including Rep. Chin Soo-hee, now serving as the health minister, and Rep. Cha Myeong-jin, a former GNP spokesman, for joining Cho in posting the list on their own Web sites in a show of support.
The KTU has so far retrieved 93 million won from Cho out of the total 95.2 million won imposed as a fine by the Seoul Southern District Court for the two-week disclosure of the membership list.
pbr@yna.co.kr