A. Grounds for defamation and illegality

B. Whether Article 310 of the Criminal Act is applied in a case where there is a purpose of slandering the victim in the motive for public interest (affirmative)

A. The decision of the trial committee set up in a religious order with the purport of disposing of a church pastor and its members can naturally spread and notify the church or its members, so even if the act of copying the above decision and distributing it to the believers, it is true that it constitutes only when it is related to the interests of the members of the religious order or its members, or at least it does not violate the social rules and regulations.

B. In the case of paragraph (1), even if the purpose of slandering the victim in the conduct of the Defendants was also hidden, if the principal motive is for the benefit of the public interest, the application of Article 310 of the Criminal Act may not be excluded.

Articles 20 and 310 of the Criminal Act

Defendant 1 and four others

Prosecutor

Daejeon District Court Decision 87No109 delivered on March 3, 1988

The appeal is dismissed.

As to the Prosecutor’s Grounds of Appeal:

The reasoning of the judgment of the court of first instance reveals that the defendants' act constitutes an act identical to the entries in the facts charged, making it unreasonable to continue to perform their duties as a member of the church despite the above judgment and the above non-indicted 1's act was widely known to the believers, and thus, it can be disseminated as a matter of course regardless of the way between the members of the church or the Korea Ethical Supervisory Board, so even if the defendant's act damages the personal reputation of non-indicted 1 through the defendant's act, it should be distributed to the believers who have shown that the above non-indicted 1's reputation was damaged by copying the decision of the Korea Ethical Supervisory Board of the Korea Ethical Commission of the Korea Ethical Audit and Inspection Board and distributed it to the believers who have shown that the above non-indicted 1's reputation was damaged by the above non-indicted 1. Even if it was true, it is not justified that the above judgment constitutes an act that constitutes a crime against the public interest of the victim of the Korea Ethical Supervisory Board or its affiliated members.

The judgment of the court below is not erroneous in the misapprehension of legal principles as to the public interest in the crime of defamation. We are without merit.

Therefore, the appeal is dismissed. It is so decided as per Disposition by the assent of all participating Justices on the bench.

Justices Lee Jae-sung (Presiding Justice)