Police, media, and YouTube, the conspirators of Lee’s death

The death of actor Lee Sun-kyun, 48, who was under police investigation for allegedly taking drugs, has sparked calls for a "judicial killing" and criticisms of the police's outdated investigative practices. There were also criticisms of the media for its horse-race reporting and YouTube channels for spreading unconfirmed information. About 10,000 related reports were reported in about two months before Lee's death.

Lee's alleged drug use was first brought to the attention of the media at the internal investigation phase, before an official investigation began on October 19. The police publicly summoned Lee three times. Lee has denied the intention of the crime, saying, "I didn't know it was a drug." Even a day before his death, he appealed for unfairness through his lawyer, requesting a polygraph examination.

On December 28, Kyunghyang Shinmun searched for reports with the keywords "Lee Sun-kyun" and "drugs" from October 19 to December 26 on the Korea Press Foundation's news big data analysis service, Big Kinds, and found a total of 2,820 articles from 54 registered media outlets. Naver News search results, which include online media that are not included in the Big Knids search, found a total of 14,118 articles during the same period. That's an average of 150 articles per day for 69 days.

According to the reporting patterns, even before Lee's agency issued an official statement on the afternoon of October 20, stating that he got “blackmailed," some media outlets published articles on the latest news of Lee and his family. After Lee's agency's statement, there were a number of articles that revealed Lee's full name and breaking news about the investigation. In particular, shortly after Lee's death on December 27, a KBS report on November 24 that revealed the private phone call between Lee and a hostess was criticized by people.

On YouTube, there was a "character assassination" that took place through unconfirmed information. A YouTube channel Garosero Research Institute continued to post related videos of Lee after his alleged drug use. Over the course of about two months, more than 10 videos with headlines such as "shocking" and "shocking video" and thumbnail images of Lee's photo were posted, revealing the full names and faces of those involved in the case. On December 26, the day before his death, a recording containing Lee's voice was released along with a sensational title.

Some YouTubers even capitalized on Lee's death. Lee's agency said in a statement, "People who introduced themselves as YouTubers have been visiting the funeral home day and night, causing a disturbance and creating an unbearably cruel situation."

In response to the criticism of "unreasonable investigation, the police, who have maintained their stance that they "investigated in accordance with due process,” also protested that "there was no leakage of investigation information." However, it is reported that Lee requested non-exposed attendance at the time of the third public summons, but the police refused.

Experts say that the vicious cycle of publicizing the allegations and sensational reports leading to "Police-Media-YouTube" is one of the reasons for Lee's death. "I question whether human rights should be obliterated just because someone is a celebrity," said Shin Min-hee, secretary general of the Citizens' Union for Democratic Media.

Shim Seok-tae, a professor at Semyung University's Graduate School of Journalism said, “There is nothing wrong with publicly summoning a celebrity if the charges are clear, but the police will not be able to avoid criticism in that the investigation seems to have made no progress despite calling Lee three times.” Won Yong-jin, a professor of newspaper and broadcasting at Sogang University, pointed out, "On the one hand, there are people who are sympathetic to Lee's death, but on the other hand, there are also people who are enthusiastic about sensationalized news."

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.