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| Koo Bon-chang speaks during a recent interview with the Hankook Ilbo, the sister of the Korea Times./ Korea Times file |
By Kim Se-jeong
Koo Bon-chang, an activist for Korean-Philippine children ― referred to as Kopinos here ― and the creator of the blog Bad Fathers, said Sunday that last week's court ruling acquitting him and his colleagues of defamation charges has led to countless requests for them to help with recovering overdue child support payments.
"In the 24 hours after the ruling, the Kakao Talk app was flooded with messages requesting my help," Koo told The Korea Times. "Requests even came from Thailand."
In 2018, Koo and his colleagues were sued for defamation by five Koreans ― three men two women ― who were featured on the blog because they didn't pay child support to their former partners. They claimed that putting their pictures on the blog Bad Fathers (https://badfather540837381.wordpress.com/blog/) to push them to pay the money was slander. Koo and his colleagues won the case last week.
In the ruling, the Suwon District Court said Koo and his colleagues did not make any profit from the blog which instead served the public good. The prosecution argued posting the photos violated the information and communications network utilization laws and was intended to defame the five plaintiffs.
Koo said fear of defamation charges was what had held many of his clients back from running pictures on the blog.
"When we started the blog in July 2018, we had almost 3,100 requests at hand. But only 400 clients were courageous enough to post the pictures of their former partners. Among this 400, another 170 ended up deleting the pictures because of defamation threats. Now, they don't have to worry about this."
Koo said the court's decision caught him by surprise. "Even my lawyers said the chances of us winning were not high."
He said the ruling is helping to get pending cases solved.
"Five paid the overdue money in full and had their photos deleted. And two couples are now in negotiations."
The ruling has shed light on the issue of unpaid child care support which has until now been considered a personal affair. Although rules exist, the issue did not get enough attention even from law enforcement agencies.
A victim who testified last week said she had to turn to Bad Fathers because nothing she tried, including taking legal action, worked to make her former partner pay the child support.
Calling on the government to do more, the Kyunghyang Ilbo, a Korean language daily, wrote the work of Bad Fathers came as a wake-up call to the government which has been "deaf" to the cries of these single parents.
In 2015, the government launched the Child Support Agency to help people recover child support payments. Yet, the victim testified that she pushed her ex-husband through the agency, but it didn't work.
The ruling is expected to further empower the single parents. According to Yonhap News Agency, the police detained a father for beating up his ex-wife last weekend after she staged a protest at his workplace, demanding child care support. The man had his picture posted on the Bad Fathers blog, according to the news agency.
Koo was previously known for his activism for Kopinos, abandoned children born between Filipino mothers and Korean fathers. He helped the Filipina mothers find the Korean fathers and get child support by revealing the fathers' personal information online. The scope of his work expanded to cover cases in Korea.
He said his activism for them hasn't stopped.
"They're related. If Korean mothers don't get child care support from their spouses, there will be no hope for the Filipino mothers. That's why this ruling is important for the Kopinos."
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