A ruling by the Seoul High Court determined that banning citizens who posted on social media (SNS) about the content 'There are only photos of Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Keon-hee in the Yongsan Children's Garden' from entering the garden was illegal. Last year, the first trial court issued the same ruling on December.
According to the legal community on the 27th, the administrative division 4-3 of the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of four citizens in their appeal against the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) regarding the invalidation of the entry refusal. LH manages the Yongsan Children's Garden.
The court stated, 'Restrictions on citizen entry must be administrative measures based on the law; however, the defendant (LH) did not provide specific reasons requested by the Presidential Security Service for restricting the plaintiffs' entry.' It noted, 'This is a violation of the obligation to provide grounds as stipulated in the Administrative Procedure Act.'
In July last year, Kim Eun-hee, the representative of the Yongsan Citizens' Council, and others posted on SNS, 'The special photo exhibition area (in the garden) is full of photos of Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Keon-hee. The surprising thing is there are five types of coloring for Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Keon-hee.'
Following this, Kim and others attempted to make an online reservation to enter the garden but received a notification stating, 'Reservation application is not possible.' According to regulations, any citizen should be allowed entry if they go through the process of making a reservation in advance.
Kim and others claimed, 'After writing the post, we were subjected to entry restrictions.' The Presidential Security Service rebutted, 'This is due to other illegal activities,' but did not specify what those illegal activities were. Consequently, Kim and others filed a lawsuit against LH.