RSF marks second year of Choi Chin-sop’s detention

RSF reports that Choi Chin-sop, a journalist charged under the National Security Law (NSL), remains in prison after two years of a three year sentence. His physical condition is apparently deteriorating. A journalist at the “Mal” independent monthly, he was arrested by the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) on 14 September 1992, ill-treated under […]

RSF reports that Choi Chin-sop, a journalist charged under the
National Security Law (NSL), remains in prison after two years of
a three year sentence. His physical condition is apparently
deteriorating. A journalist at the “Mal” independent monthly, he
was arrested by the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP)
on 14 September 1992, ill-treated under interrogation and
detained in violation of his right to freedom of expression and
association. Choi Chin-sop was charged under NSL with belonging
to an “anti-state” organization and publishing articles praising
North Korea. In fact, he has written several articles about human
rights issues and political problems which were included in the
list of charges against him. The charges seem to be fallacious
and meant to make Choi Chin-sop out to be a spy, the NSL being
frequently used in the Republic of Korea to jail opponents and
gag dissident voices.

Considering that the journalist “did not employ, propagate or
prepare for violence” nor “transmit to others secret information
or information that could represent a threat to national
security”, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention declared in September 1994 the detention of Choi Chin-
sop “to be arbitrary, being in contravention of Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which
the Republic of Korea is a Party.”

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President Kim Young-sam

The Blue House

1 Sejong-No

Chongno-Gu

Seoul, Republic of Korea

Fax: +822 720 2686