Federal Bar Association Seeks Compulsory Warrants to Scan Telephone Call Details

The Korean Federal Bar Association, led by Park Jae-seung, announced on December 23 that it has handed in a report to the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee suggesting that a warrant be compulsory in order to report telephone call details and insisting that the permitted duration of wiretapping should be limited. The association has handed in the report that includes their opinions in accordance with the Communication Secrecy Protection Law reform appeal by NGOs.

In the report, the association insists, “The current law that allows reporting of telephone call details also permits misuse of the authority. As a prior protective measure, a warrant issued by the court should be obligatory before the reporting is allowed and the warrant should be applied for within a certain limited time.”

In addition, the association suggests, “The current law permits two months of wiretapping, but this is way too long considering modern people’s dependence on communication devices as well as the frequency with which they use them. The permit should limit the time to one month and it is desirable to allow two one-month extensions of the limit.”

The association added, “Under the current law, the government can call for a communication restriction order in the event of threats to national security, but this involves violating privacy and thus requires a special regulation under the National Assembly’s supervision.”

Organizations such as Lawyers’ Association for the Democratic Society have handed in a Secrecy Protection Law reform petition bill to the National Assembly that insists on a compulsory warrant for reporting of telephone call details and on the abolition of the Emergency Communication Restriction Order. This is derived from their findings in October that the prosecution had scanned through the telephone call details of journalists regularly covering the prosecution in order to protect against the exposure of investigation secrets.

Soo-Kyung Kim skkim@donga.com