Anti-US Beef Actress Prevails in Court

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Actress Kim Min-sun was one of many entertainers who protested against the government’s decision to allow back U.S. beef into Korean markets.

Actress Kim Min-sun won a legal battle Tuesday, started by an American beef importer for an article she wrote two years ago on her private blog that allegedly exaggerated the risk of mad cow disease associated with U.S. beef.

In May 2008, when the country was trapped in heated debate over the resumption of U.S. beef imports and its association with mad cow disease, the actress said in the article, "I would gulp a cup of potassium cyanide rather than eat a piece of American beef infected with the disease."

As the comment drew media attention, an American beef importer in Seoul, A-Meat, filed a suit against the actress and five staff members of an investigative TV journal, PD Notebook, for interrupting its business by spreading what it called "groundless" information about the imported beef. The importer also claimed its bottom line was hit hard by her defamatory article.

But the Seoul Southern District Court Tuesday ruled the actress and the TV program were not liable for any damages to the importer.

Judge Kim Sung-gon said in the ruling, "Her article revealed no specific information associated with the plaintiff. So it cannot be seen that her article interrupted its business." The judge also acquitted the five TV producers, saying the program was wholly based on data they compiled in the belief that they were all scientifically grounded.

"Also, the program was to criticize the government for a deal with Washington allegedly endorsed in a cursory manner, not a specific company," the judge said.

Two years have passed since the social unrest, provoked by the resumption of U.S. beef imports without thorough restrictions to keep risky parts of American beef at bay, ended.

To quell enraged citizens, who took to major streets for three months, President Lee Myung-bak solicited for the U.S. government to modify the terms of the contract signed between the two parties, made public apologies and reshuffled the Cabinet.

But society is still divided and shows no immediate sign of mending the rift. Rather, what is left over from the unrest is still plaguing the administration by providing a ground for ideological showdowns between those in favor of the conservative administration and its opponents, levying a heavy political burden on President Lee, who is in the midst of his five-year presidency.

The latest controversy, associated with the beef scandal two years ago, resurfaced after a court ruling early this month that exonerated the five TV producers from defamation charges.

On Jan. 20, the Seoul Central District Court cleared them on defamation charges for allegedly wrongly portraying the actions of two senior state trade negotiators during the Seoul-Washington talks to resume U.S. beef imports in 2008.

The ruling provoked immediate condemnation from conservative activists and politicians, pressuring the head of the judiciary to step down, calling the verdict a decision based on ideological bias. Some overzealous activists even staged rallies in front of the home of the judge in charge of the case, calling for his resignation.

Liberal activists and politicians condemned their moves, describing a series of acts by their counterparts as politically motivated moves to sway the judiciary, whose independent operation is guaranteed under the Constitution.

Galvanized by the ruling, the ruling Grand National Party is now pushing a package of bills to tighten its grip on the judiciary, while opposition parties are trying to strike down the attempt.

Source: The Korea Times

Comments

[kimishim.livejournal.com]

I'm American and I wouldn't want to eat U.S. beef either.

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

bcecause koreans raise their own beef and they are very proud of it. They talk about "true korean beef " in a lot of variety shows

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

I am speculating so I am not sure. I think American beef is probably cheaper. I always hear about how expensive beef is in Asia. Koreans seem to really like fresh healthy products and American beef is filled with roids and hormones. Plus the outbreak of mad cow doesn't really make it appealing either.

I think Koreans would rather buy Korean beef but the restaurants are probably using cheaper American beef.

[newlines.livejournal.com]

i think it also has to do with something about importing the pieces that were more likely to have it? almost kind of like leftover meat that everyone else wasnt eating because they were diseased.

[locofruitcake.livejournal.com]

It's not solely because of economics, although the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement was a major point.

One of the reasons that spurred the protests was that lifting the ban on US beef imports would put society at risk of MCD. Of course, South Korea is not the only country at risk, but because they already put a halt on the imports, I'm assuming that the citizens did not see a need to lift the ban.

It's also closely tied to their politics. Iirc, a lot of protesters saw this as the current SK government's way of gelling negotiations with the US (that they were trying to re-establish at that time). Establishing/changing foreign policies are always controversial, and this was made even more so by the health factor I guess. Moreover, considering the history of the various groups of political parties and their supporters, this is sort of just another political battle ground.

This happened a while back and I haven't followed the news closely since, so I'm just saying this off the cuff :3

[wackypinkbunny.livejournal.com]

America has like a beef recall once a year. It's ridiculous because it should be rare to have a recall. I don't trust American beef either!

[czarny.livejournal.com]

Didn't they march against it too with the massive protest? I hope I'm not confusing it with something else but it's one of the reasons the current president is so hated, but he's an all right twat as it is.

[sabaism.livejournal.com]

BSE ("mad cow disease") and CJD/vCJD (another brain disease linked to BSE) have years long incubation periods, so it could be ages before anyone realizes they have it. You could spend years eating infected beef and not ever realize it.

[bai-se-yue.livejournal.com]

Moooooooo!

[covermeblack.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[to-the-wick.livejournal.com]

So she had a... groundless beef... with ground beef.

I should get some sleep cause that was too funny for me. ':|

[newlines.livejournal.com]

haha!
i thought it was cute :3

[the-lazy-one.livejournal.com]

I think I must be going crazy because this comment is making me laugh so hard. It's probably going to be one of those things that I'm going to think about the whole day and make me laugh out randomly in public....

LOL.

[super-genin.livejournal.com]

You just made my day, bb. You just made my day.

[newlines.livejournal.com]

wow.
im not saying that eating beef with mad cow disease should be promoted, but the whole mess thats been going on around this... yikes.
i thought it the reactions of the citizens were kind of interesting though, they seem just as *zealous* as they are online. :0

[akaich0u.livejournal.com]

Dude. Of course bad meat exists out there but I think the meat company is right to sue her. A lot of people don't even know what Creutzfeldt–Jakob is (excuse me, mad cow disease) and misinformed spewing of stuff doesn't help anyone.

It reminds me of how people won't eat fruit that's been gamma irradiated 'cause they're convinced it's ~bad~ when they don't even know what it is.

[frequency.livejournal.com]

this.

[chakhleha.livejournal.com]

This exactly

[hoyah.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah - I vaguely remember this.

[wackypinkbunny.livejournal.com]

I am in a food safety class right now, and my teacher said that a few years ago in America the cows were diagnosed with MCD. Well, that's a lot of money to just let those cows go, so America gave it to China. Except that China isn't stupid, and they ground it and put it in canned chili and sent it back to America were Americans ate the chili, got sick and then that chili had to be recalled. LOL. I don't know how true this story is, but there it is.

[czarny.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an urban legend.

[kayleen-san.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that never happened.

[speakoslow.livejournal.com]

Lol if that happened than America deserved it, karma. BUT I highly doubt it happened. America may seem evil and be the bullies in a lot of issues but I highly doubt the American government would stoop that low as to poison another nation knowingly. As least I hope.

[desperategraves.livejournal.com]

don't think that's true

[wackypinkbunny.livejournal.com]

Oh, I should have said some cows. I don't know why I put "the cows."

[krispy-bacon.livejournal.com]

This makes me want a hamburger.

[ijiified.livejournal.com]

Sorry peoples. This is just Koreans freaking out and being anti-import. No offense to them, because I love Korea, but Mad-Cow Disease is 100% not a threat, especially if Korea themselves is checking the cows that are imported into the country.

Which is not to say that American beef is healthy. I'm sure Korean beef is healthier. But I highly doubt that's the real issue here.

[rampart.livejournal.com]

True story. Nativist policies keep domestic prices on beef nice and high and protected from outside competition. Even if american beef isn't that good.

[blueberry-luv.livejournal.com]

Ia, this seems like a stereotype perpetuated by local beef producers to keep the price high. They must be making huge losses competing with cheaper import beef

[diamondroad17.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Korean beef is healthier than American but I've heard that there's more standard and regulations for imported beef than home grown beef.

[atarashiiyoake.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I've been a vegetarian for years.

[speakoslow.livejournal.com]

I don't have much of an opinion about Korea and this issue as I don't know enough about it. But I just wanted to say that diseases can occur anywhere and anytime. America isn't the only place to have had a MCD outbreak. Who's to say that Korea won't have an outbreak??? These diseases don't just stay in one area. To stop all imports is kind of ridiculous I think. I mean look at Japan. They are huge in the seafood industry but it's been proven that many of their fish have high levels of mercury, is anybody stopping the import of fish from Japan? NO. WHY? B/c we can't live our whole lives worried and in fear about if everything we eat is infected.

[ideservestars.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you're saying. But Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, mad cow in humans, is extremely rare, though. The biggest outbreak has been in the UK were they've had like 170 people get it, where as in America it's only been three. It's kind of redic to believe that all of our cows are tainted over 3 cows that got sick almost 4 or 5 years ago.

[ideservestars.livejournal.com]

lol yeah because BSE is a big deal in US when there have only been three known cases, and there have only been alittle over 200 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the world. I mean seriously, its one thing to say, "stop imported beef, keep it from the homeland~" and another to say, "STOP IMPORTED BEEF IT'S ALL INFECTED WITH MAD COW."

[kat-tunluver90.livejournal.com]

*go eats a Big Mac* *munch munch* ....what??

[brianathebard.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm an American and I usually don't eat meat in general because it's too expensive, but I don't see what the fuss is. The risk of getting mad cow disease, if you do eat infected meat, it would have to be raw and it's some crazy small percentage. I say as long as you know the risks, go for it.

The ruling provoked immediate condemnation from conservative activists and politicians, pressuring the head of the judiciary to step down, calling the verdict a decision based on ideological bias.
Agreed.

Some overzealous activists even staged rallies in front of the home of the judge in charge of the case, calling for his resignation.
...this kind of thing really doesn't happen only to idols, huh? That's a bit over the top (though I'm sure there are people outside of the white house right now calling for Obama's resignation, just like people did with Bush. I admire their perserverence, but don't they have anything better to do?)

[cookiers.livejournal.com]

I eat beef all the time and I don't have mad cow disease :D

[kittycurious.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. Wasn't the MCD breakout a while back? And by 'a while' I'm talking 4-5 years, maybe more?
Has Korea since found MCD in beef they've tried to import? Because I'm pretty sure the big MCD scare in America was 5 years ago, and has since then been taken care of.