Ex-resident jailed for blacklist

[Anchor]

A former resident who created and spread a list of residents and medical students who did not participate in collective action has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Residents and medical students are appealing that the fear of personal information disclosure and being labeled as traitors is preventing their return.

Reporter Jin Sun-min has the story.

[Report]

In August of last year, a list of residents who returned to the hospital and medical students who resumed classes was spread online.

Their personal information, including names, contact details, alma maters, and affiliated hospitals, was exposed, sarcastically referred to as 'grateful doctors and medical students.'

Ryu, the former resident who created and disseminated this list, was sentenced to three years in prison in the first trial.

Previously, Ryu was arrested and indicted for posting the names of over 2,900 doctors and medical students on foreign websites 21 times.

This is the first actual prison sentence related to the so-called 'medical blacklist.'

The fear of personal information disclosure has indeed prevented medical students and residents from returning.

[Former Resident/Voice Altered: "The choice of whether to return or not has to rely on overall public opinion, and among the indirect pressures, (the blacklist) was the strongest. It's impossible to go back with that around."]

They are afraid of being branded as traitors who deviated from collective action, which is why they cannot return.

[Medical Student/Voice Altered: "Medical school is a six or ten-year commitment, but it's not easy to return when being criticized and ostracized by dozens or hundreds of people."]

The main platform for personal information disclosure is the doctor-exclusive community 'MediStaff.'

From January to March of this year, 230,000 problematic posts were deleted, but there were only four monitoring staff members.

Over 10,000 residents still have not returned to their training hospitals, and more than 8,000 medical students who have not resumed classes have been confirmed to be failing.

This is KBS News, Jin Sun-min.