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Former Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok (left) arrives at Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: AP

Ex-Park aide, culture minister jailed for blacklisting South Korean artists

South Korea

A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced the former presidential chief of staff and the former culture minister to prison for blacklisting thousands of artists and denying them state support because they were believed to be unfriendly to ousted President Park Geun-hye.

They are the latest convictions from the corruption scandal surrounding Park, who is jailed and being tried for bribery and other criminal charges.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Park’s former aide Kim Ki-choon to three years behind bars and former culture minister Kim Jong-deok to two years for abuse of authority and other charges.

The court sentenced five other former presidential and government officials to shorter or suspended prison terms over the case.

Following months of massive protests by millions and an impeachment vote in December, Park was formally removed from office and arrested in March over allegations that she colluded with a friend to take tens of millions of dollars from the country’s largest companies through bribes and extortion.

Park was indicted in April on bribery and other charges. Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, was sentenced to three years in prison in June for using her presidential ties to unlawfully get her daughter into a prestigious Seoul university. Choi is being tried separately over more serious charges linked to the bribery and extortion suspicions.

Prosecutors expanded their investigation to include the blacklisting allegations late last year following a complaint submitted by a group of artists. Prosecutors later said about 9,000 artists were on the presidential blacklist, which reportedly included writers, poets, actors, musicians, painters, and film and theatre directors.

The Seoul court agreed with prosecutors that many of the blacklisted artists were unjustly excluded from government funding or participating in government-backed culture projects.

Kim, who served as Park’s chief of staff between 2013 and 2015, was found guilty of orchestrating the creation of the blacklist and ordering the Culture Ministry to use the list to deny the artists state support.

Former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon arrives at Seoul Central District Court in Seoul. Photo: AP

In addition to his blacklist involvement, former Culture Minister Kim was also found guilty of pressuring a senior ministry official to resign for angering Park. The official, who was reinstated by new President Moon Jae-in had submitting a report to the presidential Blue House in 2013 that was critical of Choi following a controversy over a domestic equestrian competition where her daughter finished second.

Before she was ousted from office, Park was blamed for a heavy-handed leadership style critics said caused setbacks in freedom of speech.

Artists complained about censorship. Most notably, organisers of the Busan International Film Festival in 2014 clashed with the city’s mayor who unsuccessfully tried to block a documentary on a ferry sinking earlier that year that killed more than 300 people, a disaster partially blamed on government incompetence and corruption.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Ex-officials jailed for blacklisting artists
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