Women's Groups Up in Arms Over Ruling on Late Actress

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

The late actress Choi Jin-sil


Women's groups are angry over the top court's ruling that ordered the late actress Choi Jin-sil to compensate a builder for failing to maintain "dignity" as a model representing its products.

They censured the Supreme Court for not realizing the suffering of domestic violence victims, which included Choi.

Korean Womenlink, the Korea Women's Hot Line, and the Korea Women's Association United issued a joint statement Wednesday lambasting the ruling.

On June 4, the court reversed a high court ruling that decided in favor of Choi in a compensation suit filed by Shinhan Engineering and Construction in 2004 against the actress, who was the model for its apartments.

The advertiser claims she did not keep her contractual obligation to "maintain dignity," because she disclosed to the public her bruised and swollen face which was caused by the violence of her then husband, former baseball player Cho Sung-min. They divorced soon afterward.

The top court ruled that she caused damage to the company by "failing to keep her social and moral honor" and thus depreciating the brand image. Following Choi's suicide last October, her two children ― one preschooler and the other primary schooler ― are now the parties against whom the suit was filed. Their grandmother is their legal representative.

The firm demanded 3 billion won ($2.3 million) in compensation.

As to the ruling, the groups claimed that revealing the results of domestic violence was not a matter of "dignity" but a matter of "survival."

"The core of the case is domestic violence, which is rampant here but is rarely reported to police. Many people also think that victims are partly to blame for domestic violence. Despite such social notion, Choi, a top celebrity, disclosed her situation, and it showed that she had severe suffering and was desperate to escape," the groups said in the statement.

"The ruling will silence many more domestic violence victims. The court gave up its social responsibility for domestic violence," a director of Korean Womenlink said.

"Every individual has the right to maintain his or her dignity. When a person is suffering, he or she needs to restore their dignity and social honor by disclosing the damage and seeking proper legal help as Choi did. But by ruling that she failed to maintain dignity, the court made her honor unrecoverable forever," she said.

The groups said they deplore the top court's appalling decision that forces a victim to "maintain dignity" and makes them responsible for all damages. "The court ignored the `right to be safe,' which is the basic right for `survival.' We urge the court to apologize to Choi, her family, and other domestic violence victims," they said.

Source

Comments

[incisively.livejournal.com]

I'm literally disgusted at this article.

Failing to keep her social and moral honor? What a fucking joke. She was being abused, and now they want to sue her family 2.3 million won because she makes the apartments look bad because she showed how badly she was getting beaten?

Fuck. That's horrible.

[dreamerbri.livejournal.com]

ia. i'm glad they're not letting this go on without some opposition.

[ficcy.livejournal.com]

I wanna kiss these groups who stood up for her. Suing her for being a victim of domestic abuse isn't right. AND REVEALING HER SITUATION IS MAINTAINING HER PERSONAL DIGNITY, DAMMIT. This is her right as a human being!

I wish this ends up as bad publicity for the company. They need to get it through their thick skulls that their lack of sympathy for a late victim of domestic abuse, orphans, and the elderly is fucking unacceptable. And I hope the court reverses its ruling. This is a sad display of justice.

[anticss.livejournal.com]

Damn right. This is so SICKENINGLY stupid, I hope the court does the right thing, takes the ruling back and apologizes big time.

The company can DIAF.

[aici-rua.livejournal.com]

FINALLY!! SOMETHING IS BEING DONE ABOUT THIS

[magicmelodyx.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to see this. The idea of the matter just fading from the spotlight with no one standing up for her (and all victims of violence, period,) just made me so sad.

[sup-homeskillet.livejournal.com]

Good! Somebody other than angry foreign netizens needs to push this issue.

[sojufever.livejournal.com]

her two children ― one preschooler and the other primary schooler ― are now the parties against whom the suit was filed.

Horrible. :(


I thank all those groups so much for doing this. If no one had bothered standing up for her and her family, I would have been even more disgusted than I was at the court ruling.

[cherrypop.livejournal.com]

Wow, and here I thought only North Korea could issue such a ridiculous ruling. Low blow South Korea, not cool.

[cinis.livejournal.com]

How dare they demand any money from her, this is simply disgusting.

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

This shit is crazy and more than just women should be outraged.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

FINALLY!!!

I was waiting for some deserved anger!

Every woman in Korea should donate five won and then stuff the freakin 3 billion in the firm's face. That and never buy anything coming from that firm.

THAT would be rich.

[girl-vsmachine.livejournal.com]

what..

[purpledna.livejournal.com]

lol, you want the women to pay the company?!?

[liime-arix.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that some women think it's wrong.
I myself am disgusted by the court's ruling.

[hoyah.livejournal.com]

was waiting for the women's rights groups to speak up :)

[risu-risu.livejournal.com]

i'm so glad to hear that women's rights groups are not only taking a stand, but making waves. at the same time i think more than an apology is needed. the current ruling needs to be reversed or thrown out.

[umbrella-smile.livejournal.com]

"domestic violence, which is rampant here but is rarely reported to police"

That makes me so sick I can't even express my anger.

[automatic-love.livejournal.com]

I still can't fucking believe this happened. WTF Korea!