The ruling Grand National Party, bracing for public shock following the suicide of top actress
Choi Jin-sil, said on Friday that it will push for legislation against online rumor mongers in the ongoing assembly session, reported Yonhap News Agency.
"There will be continuing nuisances from malicious messages on the Internet should we not set a punishment", said Hong Joon-pyo, floor leader for the conservative party, which controls 172 seats in the 299-member assembly.
Under the envisioned Cyber Defamation Law that the ruling party is seeking to pass by December, those who post malicious rumors on the Web will be punished while users will be required to identify themselves by their real names before posting comments, Hong said.
Liberals have opposed Internet crackdowns by the state for fear they would be used to suppress individuals' freedom of expression.
But calls for regulations maintaining online discipline quickly gained momentum in the wake of Choi's chilling death, widely blamed on such malignant Internet rumors.
Choi, 40, who was a fixture of Korean prime-time television dramas for two decades, was found hanging from an elastic band in a bathroom in her house in southern Seoul on Thursday morning.
Police said the actress had suffered deeply from rumors circulating that linked her to the recent suicide of another actor,
Ahn Jae-hwan. The rumors accused Choi of loaning Ahn a substantial sum of money as his business faltered.
Ahn was under pressure from loan sharks before his death, according to investigators.
Choi sought a police probe into the source of the rumors, calling them groundless. And while a securities company employee was arrested earlier this week in the case, the probe ultimately failed to prevent Choi, who had been on medication for depression since an ugly divorce in 2004, from taking her own life.
Police have since concluded that the rumors were groundless.
"There is no evidence for the rumor that Ms. Choi was involved in the loan business", Yang Jae-ho, a criminal investigations officer at the Seocho Police Station examining Choi's death, told reporters.
