Every country abolished the criminal penalties for defamation and is proceeding civilly to realize freedom of expression, which is the most fundamental human right, underlying our democracy. The United States has solved most issues relating to defamation civilly by the turn of the 20th century, and, even if some states have statutes regarding criminal punishment, such regulations are rarely applied in reality. The United Kingdom used to be called as the kingdom of the criminal defamation as defamation has been criminally punished there, but criminal punishment for defamation has been reduced to guarantee the freedom of expression from the latter half of the 19th century and criminal defamation was abolished in 2010 (Section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009). In Germany, a person shall not be punished for criminal defamation only where the fact that reputation was afflicted is proved to be true (Section 186 of the German Criminal Code), and in France, a prison sentence shall not be imposed as punishment for criminal defamation (Sections 29 through 32 of the Law on the Freedom of the Press). The UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) determined that defense of the truth shall be allowed with regard to criminal defamation to guarantee the freedom of expression, decriminalization of criminal defamation shall be considered, and, in particular, a person shall not be detained in custody on grounds of defamation (UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), General comment no. 34, Article 19, Freedoms of opinion and expression, 12 September 2011, CCPR/C/GC/34, para. 47). Furthermore, the report of the special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council recommended the Republic of Korea to abolish criminal defamation under the Criminal Act. Considering that criminal punishment for defamation can lead to the result where the right to free expression is excessively discouraged and defamation can be appropriately addressed by compensation under the Civil Act, criminal punishment cannot be justified [Frank La Rue, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Human Rights Council 17th Session, Agenda item 3, A/HRC/17/27/Add.2 (21 March 2011), para. 28]. However, the Korean Criminal Act has still criminally punished even in cases of alleging true facts, and criminal punishment cannot be avoided unless the facts are solely in the public interest. In addition thereto, it cannot be denied that since the Supreme Court, in 1968, accepted the theory of propagation possibility which has been recognized by Japanese precedents, the theory is rather extending the scope of