Article: 'Suzy, "nation's hotel girl" comment... Supreme Court, "Sexual objectification insult is right"
Source: Newsis
The Supreme Court has ruled that using term 'Nation's Hotel Girl' towards Suzy (29) is a crime.
On the 28th, Supreme Court judge Min Yoo-sook overturned the lower court's ruling that acquitted A (44) who was accused of insults and sent the case back to the Seoul Northern District Court.
On October 29, 2015, A was put on trial for insulting Suzy by commenting on a media article related to the singer/actress saying, "A bubble created by UNPL, just a nation's hotel girl." On December 3 of the same year, A further wrote, "Why is Suzy, a movie bomber, attaching herself to B (another celebrity)?" He was also accused of posting a comment that states, "JYPs reject."
The first trial judged that using terms like "bubble", "nation's hotel girl", "movie bomber," and "reject" constitute an insult. The judge stated, "the victim was a celebrity and considering the specificity of the netizen's comments, these expressions were not included in the scope allowed by sound social norms."
The second trial overturned first trial's ruling and found A 'not guilty.' The court stated that considering celebrities are subject to public attention, different standards from non-celebrities should be applied when determining if an "insult" happened. For ex., the expression 'Nation's Hotel Girl' was merely a sarcastic play of the entertainment industry term 'Nation's Sister" based on Suzy's past dating scandal. The other expressions were not an insult either nor did they violate social norms.
The Supreme Court also judged the terms "bubble", "movie bomber," and "reject" as somewhat harsh in expressing criticism of Suzy but fell within the area of freedom of expression. The judge also acquitted A over these comments similar to the judgement in the 2nd trial.
However, regarding the "nation's hotel girl" comments, the Supreme Court judge stated, "It's written in a way that disparages and sexually targets Suzy opposite of her actual image. It's intended to degrade Suzy's standing in society as a female idol."
The judge explicitly stated to remain prudent in judging that insulting expressions about celebrities' lives do not fall under what constitutes the requirements of the crime of an insult or violate norms on freedom of expression. It's necessary to differentiate the range between what's "freedom of expression" by distinguishing between the public activities of a celebrity vs. their private lives.
The judge also pointed out that the term "nation's hotel girl" could be seen as "spewing hate" towards a female idol or celebrity.
- [+695, -62] How many times have we seen people write careless comments? I hope this incident is a wake-up call for our society to ban comments that are not current with the times.
- [+525, -94] Did this reporter write this article to sh*t at Suzy? Was there a need to reiterate the original comments?
- [+414, -132] The hotel thing, wasn't that because she got caught in a foreign hotel with Lee Min-ho ㅋ
- [+244, -125] Hey.. since when are celebrities government officials?? So I have to leave a comment like "you're pretty" whenever it's a celebrity article?
- [+92, -47] Whether or not the 'nation's hotel girl' comments touched on her private life, the other words aren't necessarily hate either... Suzy was a member of an idol group with pretty visuals and all but it's not like she had any talents as a singer...none as an actor either. But aren't the comments right that she's nothing but a kid that lucked out with her face to get cast in decent dramas? This is why idols need to stay away from dramas.
- [+79, -32] So now we're not allowed to write any bad comments? They want to earn money selling their faces but don't want to get cursed??? They're not paying anything in return and just want to hear compliments and love.. this is quite greedy of her. How much is she earning already from selling her face??
- [+73, -30] 'Bubble' 'Nation's hotel girl' 'reject'... ?? She's in a job of attracting public attention but can't even endure this level of comments? Does she think she only deserves to be loved? We all live in a society where we're hated and degraded every day to make money.
- [+72, -10] I do agree that we need to respect freedom of expression but it's not like Suzy and Lee Min-ho were caught at a foreign hotel during the Joseon Dynasty? If a man and a woman are dating, these types of things can happen.. even if you come out with hundreds of excuses, it's an issue where he used a backhanded insult towards an idol.. no, is she a nun? Is she not allowed to go to a motel?
- [+65, -15] Is this a trainee BJ?? What kind of reporter is so proud writing something full of Hangeul typos and the nerve to post this as an article ㅋ ㅋ what a piece of trash
- [+52, -47] A 44 yr old writing hate comments in the corner of his room criticizing celebritiesㅋㅋ. Let's stop projecting our inferiority complexㅋ