Era of recording

A high-ranking government official records everything happening during meetings. This is to prepare for achievement of potential legal accountability. An employee at a large firm who is going through a lot of distress because of his boss changes what he says. A medical doctor at a hospital posted "no recording" messages on hospital rooms after recognizing that the patients were recording what he said, but is still worried. He had suffered from a patient filing a medical lawsuit against him even though he was telling the patient simply to calm them.

Korea is a republic of recording. There is even a saying that suits come with recordings. Shorthand typists are enjoying a boom due to this reason. It is illegal for a third party to record other persons' conversation, but it is not illegal for the first party to record without consent by the counterparty. Many people say that Korea is generous to recordings, given that this is illegal in many states in the U.S. Samsung and LG have recording functions during a phone call conversation in their smartphones sold in Korea. However, they exclude such features in phones being exported to North America and Europe.

The era of wiretapping has gone and the era of recording has come. Wiretapping was an exclusive possession to intelligence agencies, but now recording is a frequent habit that can be done by ordinary people. People can be nervous since they don't know whether the person on the other side is recording. Recording functions virtuously as the ultimate means for the vulnerable and for those accusing behind the scenes deals of those seizing power, but it cannot be justified since it could infringe on privacy.

The Korean society has been mired in a number of recording cases, for example Gyeongnam Enterprise Chairman Sung Wan-jong who led former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo step down, sales person at Namyang Dairy who spoke rough words to the owner of an agent store, and Ilkwang Chairman Lee Gyu-tae who recorded conversation with an actress. More recent cases include former senior presidential press secretary Lee Jung-hyun, senior education ministry official Na Hyang-wook, rough words between Saenuri Party lawmakers Choi Kyung-hwan, Yoon Sang-hyun and former senior presidential secretary for political affairs Hyun Ki-hwan. These short phone conversations contained ugly and greedy words of conspiracy, trickery, deals, threat and conciliation. 　

허문명논설위원 angelhuh@donga.com