輿論調査結果 公表禁止規定의 憲法合致性 - 헌법재판소 결정을 중심으로 -

According to the Korean Voting Law, anyone should not publish the result of opinion poll about presidential election during the election campaign time. In Korean Constitution free speech is considered a preeminent right under democratic theory. Korean court will vary its level of scrutiny depending on the degree of free speech infringement. Korean court will use strict criterion in this case because the free speech encroachment is severe unconstitutional condition in democratic society. Therefore the court has allowed content based restrictions only when the governmental interest involved is compelling, substantial or cogent. So we can argue that this hindrance violated the public"s constitutional right to receive information about election result and prevented the press from fulfilling its obligation of disseminating it. The Constitution treats th right of free and open political debate as a value of paramount importance. Accordingly, political speech, which also includes electoral speech, receive the fullest protection under the Constitution Of course the electoral speech involves opinion poll result distribution. In conclusion, the court should have invalidated this regulation which suppress campaign information and reaffirmed the court"s position that voters need to hear all electoral information even if such information is slightly tainted or miscalculated. Citizens justly have a constitutional right to predicate their votes on electoral returns if that information is ascertainable.