Bong Joon-ho On Lee Sun-kyun’s Case, “Any Problems With Securing Information During Investigation?”
On January 12th, the press conference to announce the “Demands of cultural artists facing the death of the late actor Lee Sun-kyun” statement was held at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Director Bong Joon-ho, singer-songwriter Yoon Jong-shin, director Lee Won-tae, actor Kim Eui-sung, and many representatives from organizations and associations in the film industry attended the event.
On behalf of the Association of Cultural Artists, Kim Eui-sung came forward to announce the statement, saying “We hope this tragedy will not repeat during investigations of popular cultural artists”.
He continued, “An actor sadly passed away on December 27th. After a daily newspaper made the first report about actor L under investigation for drug use by an Incheon Metropolitan Police official on October 19th, he (Lee Sun-kyun) was immediately exposed to the media without any protection for two months since he was officially booked”.
The actor added, “The recording file, which is difficult to determine its relevance with the case and considered evidence, was revealed to the public through the media. Eventually, he ended his life leaving a request to confirm the authenticity of the statement with a lie detector after the third summons with a 19-hour investigation. Therefore, I think this is the least we can do for a colleague who had endured all the harsh criticism that ruined his reputation for two months”.
Director Bong Joon-ho also said, “We have a request for the investigation authorities. We urge people involved to find out whether there were any problems with the police investigation’s security from the moment the deceased’s personal information was leaked during the internal investigation to when he made an extreme choice. Please investigate whether there were any inappropriate responses to the media during the investigation, whether any individual investigator, not the spokesperson of the police, contacted the media personally, and whether there were inappropriate answers to the questions about the case.”
He firmly stated, “Cooperating with media officials in reporting should be done within the legal boundaries. Therefore, please clarify whether the disclosures of the information of the deceased’s attendance in all three summons procedures were within the legal boundaries and whether any measures were taken to prevent the exposure of the deceased to the public on the day of the summons”, adding “We believe that the investigative authorities cannot be free from all these responsibilities with only one sentence saying they conducted the investigation according to the legal procedures. A thorough investigation into the truth of the investigative process is the only way to prevent other victims from appearing”.
Source: Nate
