(Originally posted Feb. 1, 2009)
SEOUL, South Korea — In November, a female student went missing at a university south of Seoul, and murder was suspected. Around the time I arrived in Korea, authorities arrested a man suspected of killing her. The man, named Kang, confessed to killing her, as well as six other women over the past few years. Once Kang was taken into custody, the police had him wear a hood and cap to protect his identity from disclosure. He had a criminal record of some kind from before, and a few newspapers here disclosed his earlier mug shots.
This has set off a debate over which “right” is more important: The right of the people to know (I would call it freedom of the press, but no article I’ve read on the story has), or the right of the accused and his family to keep his identity a secret until he is proven guilty. In my understanding, this debate never happened or is long since over in the United States: the man’s face would be plastered over newspapers and TV immediately. If I’m wrong on that, please comment.
Does the way we approach this in the United States reflect our own values? If we were in Korea’s position, having to hash this out right now,which decision should we make?
To read some more about the story, see this.
Interesting and tangentially related article.
Anthony Bessette is studying abroad at Yonsei University for the spring 2009 semester.
