A ruling has been made that the state should pay damages to a film company that was on the list of exclusions from support for the arts and culture created by the Park Geun-hye government.
The Civil Settlement Division 16 of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Moon Seong-gwan) said, “The defendants should jointly pay 80 million won to the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by Cinemadal, a movie producer and distributor, against the state and the Korean Film Council (Youngjin Commission). Some of the plaintiffs were ruled in favor.
Cinemadal, which distributes and produces independent films, filed a lawsuit claiming 190 million won, claiming that her name was on the black list prepared by the Park Geun-hye government in 2014 and suffered losses such as not receiving subsidies.
The court said, "We systematically prepare, distribute, and manage a list containing personal information of cultural artists, including the plaintiff, on the grounds that they have different political views or ideological inclinations from those advocated by the government, exclude them from support projects, or refuse to show specific films. It was an illegal act that violated the Constitution and the law.”
(Photo = Courtesy of Seoul High Court, Yonhap News)