The Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled the online real-name system unconstitutional.

The decision will thus repeal the system that was introduced in 2007 to prevent malicious postings and comments on the Web.

“In order to preliminarily restrict freedom of expression, there must be a clear effect (from such a system) on the common good. After the (real-name system was introduced), the amount of illegal postings did not make a significant decline and instead led users to use overseas sites, while causing reverse discrimination between domestic and overseas service operators,” the eight-member court said in the unanimous ruling.

The court also cited difficulties faced by foreign users without South Korean registration numbers from using Internet message boards and the higher risk of information leaks as the reasons for the ruling.

Article 44 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection has specified that those operating an open message board where the average number of users is more than 100,000 per day must take necessary measures for verifying the identity of users.

Separately, the court decided it was constitutional to sentence to imprisonment medical personnel for conducting abortions.

South Korea bans abortions in the Criminal Act, which stipulates that a woman who procures her own miscarriage and a person who conducts the abortion upon request will be punished by imprisonment or fine. The regulation applies to all doctors, herb doctors, midwives, pharmacists or druggists, who could face a jail term of up to two years.

“Abortions are usually conducted by medical service workers and it is highly possible to be subject under condemnation for being a surgical procedure that rips a fetus of its life,” the ruling read.

The court added an imprisonment was constitutionally fair as a lighter penalty of a fine would “not suffice to curb the crime.”

Four out of eight judges, however, had given an opposing decision, stating that there is a need to permit abortion at an early stage of pregnancy by respecting the person’s right to decide.

An owner of a maternity nursing home had filed the constitutional petition after receiving a prison term in 2010 for conducting an abortion upon the request of a female identified as Kim who was six weeks pregnant, citing it was an unwanted pregnancy. The patient’s boyfriend, who had accompanied Kim for the abortion procedure, had later filed a suit against the owner.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)