The judgment below

Each part of the violation of the Public Official Election Act is reversed, and that part of the case is remanded to the Gwangju High Court.

1. The grounds of appeal are examined.

(1) Article 93(1) of the Public Official Election Act provides that “No one shall distribute, post, spread, play, or post any advertisement, letter of personnel management, poster, photograph, document, picture, picture, printed matter, recording tape, and others similar thereto (hereinafter collectively referred to as “distribution of a document by unlawful means”), which contains any content supporting, recommending, or opposing a political party or candidate from 180 days before the election day to the election day, or which indicates the name of a political party or candidate’s name,” and Article 255(2)5 of the Public Official Election Act provides that anyone who violates this provision shall be punished.

And the act of transmitting text messages in a large quantity constitutes a document distribution by means of law.

(See Supreme Court Decision 2006Do7847 Decided February 22, 2007). Meanwhile, where Article 59 Subparag. 2 of the Public Official Election Act was newly established on February 29, 2012 and text messages different from the previous one are to be carried out by sending text messages, an election campaign is permitted prior to the beginning date of the election campaign period, but in such cases, those who are able to carry out an election campaign by sending text messages by means of automatic broadcast communications using computers and computer-based technologies are allowed, and those who are allowed to carry out an election campaign by sending text messages by means of automatic broadcast communications using computers and computer-based technologies are limited to candidates and preliminary candidates, and the number of times thereof shall not exceed five times, and only

Article 256 (3) 1 (b) of the Public Official Election Act provides that anyone who is not a candidate and a preliminary candidate shall be punished by sending text messages through automatic broadcast communications, or by sending text messages through automatic broadcast communications more than five times even if he/she is a candidate or a preliminary candidate.

In light of the language and purport of these provisions, Article 59 of the Public Official Election Act is applied.