[Editorial] Invoking the Constitution to Cover Things Up

Certain media outlets are intensively suggesting that parts of the legislation proposed by the ruling and opposition parties for dealing with the illegal eavesdropping affair could be unconstitutional. Perhaps aware of those claims Grand National Party (GNP) chairman Park Geun Hye says the "unconstitutional elements of the bill to appoint a special prosecutor need to be removed." If there do happen to be parts of the bill that are unconstitutional then it should of course be revised. But the current talk about the bills being unconstitutional sounds like it has impure intent, as if there is a desire to burry the whole issue altogether.

Before debating the bills' constitutionality what must first be resolved is the question of whether or not there should be an investigation based on the contents of the eavesdropping tapes. They clearly contain clues to the collusive relationship between government, business, civil servants, and the news media, the ugliest criminal activity in Korea. When GNP Assemblyman Won Hee Ryong says resolving the case "should be used as an opportunity to put some ethics in capital and political power" he speaks for a majority of the country. The question then becomes one of jurisprudence and legal procedure, and the prosecution has already concluded in a study of Korean and international legal theory and precedent that no legal problems exist. It is wrong for some media to try to stop an investigation into the contents of the tapes from happening with concentrated claims disclosing the contents might be unconstitutional.

Correcting the deliberate distortions requires a more precise definition of the term "disclosure." What is clear is that revealing the contents of the eavesdropping tapes is supposed to be about following up on clear leads about criminal activity and not satisfying popular curiosity or voyeurism. It's not about indiscriminate exposure but about looking at criminal activity by powerful public figures in our society. If parts of the legislative proposals by the ruling and opposition parties are vague then they need to be clarified.

The Hankyoreh, 12 August 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]