remember that foreign girl who was raped? turns out the Korea Times and the Chosun Ilbo [thanks, Brian] never even talked to her before making up her quotes and writing up her story.
Story in the Korea Herald
Maybe this is my western judgement of Korean culture, but I still think it's messed up that criminals can often pay in order to have their prison sentence reduced, and that such "blood money" deals are often brokered by the police. In some cases, it almost comes across as "hush money"
HT to Extra Korea
one expat's life in Korea
6 comments:
Was in the Chosun Ilbo, btw.
Robo,
I made essentially the same comment in MH, but would just like to note that the money-or-prison sentence system is not just in Korea, but quite prevalent in all civil law countries, including most of Europe (except Britain) and Japan.
The words "reached an out-of-court settlement" come to mind.
As The Marmot said in his post on this, I'm also curious where Newsis got its quotations. And, how did it get a hold of this story in the first place? Are rapes routinely reported in the papers? Did somebody just happen across the Facebook page and find it newsworthy?
money-or-prison is common, but I think here (Korea) the money comes much earlier in the process--usually soon after the complaint is brought to the POLICE, although sometimes not even a complaint is made, the police just encourage the parties to work things out themselves.
To me the expression "reached an out-of-court settlement" doesn't actually occur until COURT proceedings have begun and the (soon to be the) losing side wants to mitigate their punishment with money before a harsher judgment is made in the foreseeable future.
Yeah, both are money-for-no-prison, or money-for-lower-fines, but the timing is a little different.
Chosun Ilbo and the likes are not liked even by Koreans. A Korean friend of mine told me a story of her friend who works for them. When meeting people, she never admits being employed by Chosun Ilbo, as the social stigma of working for them (at least for liberal-minded young Koreans) is just to large.
But then, it's just as extreme on the other side: Hankyoreh readers hate and mistrust Chosun Ilbo, but Chosun readers hate and mistrust Hangyoreh. I just feel dismayed at how polarized everything is in Korea.
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