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3 U. Balt. J. Media L. & Ethics 63 (2012)
Bloggers' Libel Liability: A Comparative Analysis of South Korea and the United States

handle is hein.journals/ubjmleth3 and id is 271 raw text is: BLOGGERS' LIBEL LIABILITY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOUTH KOREA AND THE UNITED STATES YooNMO SANG & JONATHAN ANDERSON' The influence of bloggers has increased to the degree that they are more and more frequently becoming involved in defamation and invasion-of-privacy suits. Bloggers threatened with legal action often remove potentially libelous content rather than deal with the difficulty and expense of litigation. This paper aims to trace the strains of controversy surrounding the application ofjournalistic standards of liability to bloggers. This study furthermore analyzes court cases and relevant statutes regarding bloggers' liability in South Korea and the United States and suggests a more reasonable approach to holding bloggers liable for libel. Keywords: blog, libel, liability, comparative analysis, Internet Blogs are a popular means for expressing, online, one's ideas and opinions. Their rise in popularity has been attended by increased scrutiny as well as power. Blogs can be defined as online publications that typically present contents in inverse chronological order, time-stamped, and with hyperlink pointing at original sources online that bloggers refer to.1 Individuals who produce, contribute, or publish content found on blogs are known as bloggers. Some bloggers reach a wide enough audience and appear to wield enough power over public opinion that they can find themselves in court. In the United States, bloggers are increasingly being sued for defamation and invasion of privacy.2 In July 2008, the Media Law Resource Center reported that 159 civil and criminal court lawsuits had been filed against bloggers since 2004.3 The number of reported cases involving bloggers' libel liability has, in recent years, sharply 1 Ari Heinonen, Blogger, in THE INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMMUNICATION 339 (Wolfgang Donsbach ed., 2008). 2 M. P. Mcqueen, Bloggers, Beware: What You Write Can Get You Sued, WALL ST. J., May 21, 2009, at Dl. 3 Huma Yusuf, Lawsuits Against Bloggers Seen Rising, ABC NEWS, July 20, 2008, available at http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5406538 (last visited June 6, 2012). UB Journal of Media Law & Ethics, Volume 3, Numbers 1/2 (Winter/Spring 2012) 63

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