Portals ordered to pay damages over defamatory comments

SEOUL, April 16 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the country's
leading portals to compensate for damages caused by a failure to moderate user
comments posted on their news service Web sites.
The four companies -- NHN, Daum Communications Corp., SK Communications Co. and
Yahoo! Korea -- were ordered to pay a combined 30 million won (US$23,000) to the
plaintiff, identified by his surname Kim, for emotional trauma caused by
defamatory comments against him that were posted on news stories carried by the
companies' Web pages.
The portals had carried news articles about Kim's ex-girlfriend who committed
suicide in 2005 and her mother's comments on a blog that blamed Kim for the
death. The identities of the former girlfriend, as well as Kim, were all revealed
in comments posted on the articles.
Kim sued the portal operators, accusing them of neglecting to control libelous
comments against him.
The companies appealed after a lower court ordered them to pay 16 million won in
compensation, arguing they were simply carrying news articles provided by media
outlets and thus cannot be held responsible.
A high court, however, later raised the amount of compensation to 30 million won,
saying that portals can be perceived as a form of press for their vast influence
in information distribution.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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