위력에 의한 업무방해죄와 광고주 불매운동

Abstract

Last year, many netizens telephoned to enterprises requesting not to advertise on Chosun, JoongAng, DongA daily newspapers for their unfair reports on the issue of importation of American beef. Early this year, dozens of netizens were judged guilty of “obstruction of business”(in Article 314, Section 1, Criminal Law) for managing an internet cafe aimed at organizing the telephone-calling movement. I am opposed to the court’s decision for the reasons as follows: First, the acts of the telephone callers should have been found justified as the constitutional rights of consumers, and the freedom of speech and of association. According to the court, an individual call can be acknowledged as an exertion of constitutional rights, whereas the mass behavior cannot be justified only because this can hinder the sellers’ free wills or businesses. But I do not agree with the decision because the consumer’s right should be defended as a group right. Second, the court was wrong in that it blamed the defendants for the results they had not brought. The court even found guilty those who had never tried calling but only proposed it. The court’s reasoning, which treats the proposers of some action as the joint principal offenders for committing the proposed action only because it was organized, should be demolished. The crime of “obstruction of business” should not be abused to prohibit the exercise of constitutional rights.