A. Defendants 1) The news report materials of this case, which are false-misunderstanding, did not specify the names of the victims, and entered them in social, making it difficult to identify the victims. Since all the contents indicated in the news report materials of this case are true, the crime of defamation due to the statement of false facts cannot be established.

2) Legal principles are misunderstanding of the contents of the instant report materials, which are all true, and this is for public interest, so illegality is dismissed by Article 310 of the Criminal Act.

B. The Prosecutor’s sentence (Defendant A: a fine of KRW 3 million, Defendant B: a fine of KRW 1 million) of the lower court is too unjustifiable.

2. Determination:

가. 피고인들의 사실 오인 주장에 대한 판단 1) 피해자들의 특정 여부에 대한 판단 명예훼손에 의한 불법행위가 성립하려면 피해자가 특정되어 있어야 하지만, 그 특정을 할 때 반드시 사람의 성명이나 단체의 명칭을 명시해야만 하는 것은 아니고, 사람의 성명을 명시하지 않거나 두문자( 頭文字) 나 이니셜만 사용한 경우라도 그 표현의 내용을 주위 사정과 종합하여 볼 때 그 표시가 피해자를 지목하는 것을 알아차릴 수 있을 정도 이면 피해자가 특정되었다고

In order to establish a crime of defamation (see Supreme Court Decision 2008Da27769, Feb. 26, 2009). In addition, since a person’s name is not necessarily required to be explicitly stated in order to establish a crime of defamation, the act of publicly alleging false facts without a person’s name is also an act of expressing false facts where it is possible to find out which person is identified by considering the contents of the expression as a whole with the surrounding circumstances (see Supreme Court Decision 82Do1256, Nov. 9, 1982, etc.). In other words, the following circumstances, including the evidence duly adopted and examined by the court below and the trial court, and the following circumstances, i.e., the act of expressing false facts, without a person’s name, can be identified.