Bong Joon-ho protests against Korean police, media over suicide of actor Lee Sun-kyun

Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun’s suicide is now turning into a media spectacle as Parasite filmmaker Bong Joon-ho told the press that he is leading a protest against the Korean police and media for instigating the actor to take such a drastic step. The Oscar-winning filmmaker didn’t mince words as he addressed a press conference in Seoul and said that sensational coverage of a drug abuse case against him led to his untimely death.

The actor, Lee Sun-kyun was being investigated by Korean police and media over possible recreational use of drugs. This coverage continued for two months before the actor died by suicide.

Backed by a collection of artists, cultural organisations, and trade associations, Bong Joon-ho called for an investigation into the police methods and for the media to reflect on the sensationalist coverage that led to Lee’s death.

“Clear legislative improvements are needed to ensure that principles and exceptions are not reversed between the human rights of suspects and the public’s right to know and that investigative authorities do not arbitrarily interpret and apply the intent of the law,” the group said in a statement.

The group titled the statement: “Demands of Artists and Culture Workers Facing the Death of the Late Actor Lee Sun-kyun.” Instead of taking Q&A’s at the event, the press conference had actor Choi Duk-moon as emcee and had a pre-determined set of speakers who each provided their own calls for justice and reform.

At the press meeting, Yoon Jong-shin said, “We hope that such a tragedy will not happen again in the process of investigating pop culture artists. This is the demand of the cultural and artistic community facing the death of the late Lee Sun-kyun.”

“I demand that the authorities investigate. We demand that the police investigate whether there was any lapse in the security of the investigation from the moment the details of the deceased’s investigation were first exposed until two months later. We want to know if there was no individual media contact during the investigation, and we want the results to be made public so that there is no doubt,” said Bong.

Meanwhile, the police have denied that they were negligent in their investigation. They also deny exposing Lee to any form of scrutiny.