【Judgment of the court below】Gwangju District Court Decision 2020No359 decided April 28, 2020 【Disposition】The final appeal is dismissed. 【Reasoning】The grounds of appeal are examined. 1. Defamation A. Case overview and main issues 1) Case overview The gist of the facts charged in this part is that the criminal defendant defamed the victim by publicly alleging facts, exclaiming aloud, “that person is an ex-convict who has served out his/her sentence,” to the victim, while Nonindicted Party 2, the husband of the criminal defendant, and Nonindicted Party 3 were listening on a back street of Party A’s house. The criminal defendant contended that there is no publicity, but the lower court upheld the judgment of the first instance court which convicted the criminal defendant of the above facts charged by recognizing publicity on the grounds that the criminal defendant declared aloud as stated in the facts charged and the criminal defendant’s remark has possibility to be propagated The criminal defendant’s grounds of final appeal are that Nonindicted Party 2 had already known the victim’s criminal record and is the husband of the criminal defendant, and Nonindicted Party 3 is a relative of the victim, and thus publicity does not exist as there is no propagation possibility. 2) Main issues The main issues in this part is whether the Supreme Court precedents recognizing publicity of criminal defamation even in the case where there is possibility to be propagated to many and unspecified persons ought to be maintained. By extension, even if the precedents are maintained, the existing precedents of the Supreme Court regarding this ought to be reexamined and the legal doctrine that the standards for determining, and the application scope of, publicity can be reasonably restricted ought to be explored therewith. B. Provisions and the need for punishment of criminal defamation 1) Provisions of criminal defamation The term “reputation” refers to personal values that each individual ought to enjoy on the basis of human dignity and social life, which provides a foundation on which human dignity is maintained and relationships with others can be formed. The term