Abstract
A Study on the Conflicts between Freedom of Advertising Campaign and Constitutional
Protection of Individual Rights
- Focus on Libel Lawsuits of Advertisements
Lee, Seung-Sun / Professor, Dept. of Advertising
and Public Relations, Mokwon University
The number of libel lawsuits against the news media
have rapidly increased since 1990. And the increase
of libel lawsuits can be constructed as enhancing public’s
knowledge about libel law and constitutionally guaranteed
rights to protect their own reputation in Korea. In
the meantime, there have been lots of cases related
to libel activities or invasion of privacy in the advertising
campaign. This study attempts to explain the significant
differences between the characteristics of libel lawsuits
against the media and those of ad lawsuits in Korea.
The results in this study are summarized as follows.
First, more civil lawsuits are filed than criminal lawsuits
in the libel cases. Second, freedom of expression is
believed to be an indispensable right to develop the
personality of individuals and to form a democratic
order. For the purpose of communicating the information
and broadening ideas, freedom of expression through
the media is constitutionally protected. Yet, freedom
of expression in ad campaign is interpreted in realm
of constitution, commercial expression is actually accorded
varying levels of protection depending upon its content.
It is the remarkable example that the right of reply
against the opinion advertisements is not admitted by
the judges in the lawsuits. The finding implies that
various methods which guarantee the right of reply should
be renewed according to the specific characteristics
of opinion advertisements.
Key word : freedom of expression, libel, right of
reply, opinion advertisements
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