Red lines on political satire and instructions to correct...Court to "Reparate the State"

A court ruled that the state should compensate the director who was asked to revise the lines while preparing for a political satirical play during the Park Geun Hye government.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the defendants should pay 25 million won in a compensation suit filed by director A against the state and national theater companies.

In September 2013, the court admitted that the government had asked Mr. A to revise the dialogue through an artistic director based on a government report that stated that the director had taken action to revise the ending in connection with other political satire presented by the National Theater Company.

At the same time, the government's demand for censorship and correction of theatrical scripts seriously violates the freedom of art and expression guaranteed by the Constitution and restricts creative activities with sound criticism.

In 2013, while preparing a play satirizing the alleged sexual harassment of former Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Yoon Chang-joong, he was handed a play script with a red line by the theater company's secretary general.

The intention was to delete or modify certain lines, but the secretary-general explained that the artistic director of the theater company said, "I don't know what this is and I don't want to see it, but please pass it on to Mr. A."

Mr. A filed a lawsuit in October last year, nine years after the incident, claiming that his freedom of expression was violated.