Two reporters were sentenced to a suspended prison term on Thursday for spreading false rumors about actress Lee Si-young’s nonexistent sex tape.

The Seoul Central Court handed down a six month prison sentence with a two year probationary period to a reporter surnamed Shin for slander. Another reporter, also surnamed Shin, received a one year prison sentence with a two year probationary period for libel.

Actres Lee Si-young (Yonhap)

Slander is only committed in spoken language while libel involves written or recorded malicious content that lowers another person’s reputation in the public eye.

Both reporters were also ordered to 200 hours of social work.

The first Shin, who works for a local paper, spoke at a dinner gathering about his past experience at an entertainment agency. He had allegedly heard that actress Lee’s agency head had made a sex tape of her for potential blackmailing purposes.

The other Shin, a Seoul-based reporter, was present at the dinner and wrote down what he heard and spread the note over an online messenger to 11 reporters and two acquaintances.

When the false rumor went viral, the two Shins attempted to manipulate evidence so that another reporter would appear as the very first source of the rumor. They also gave false testimonies to the investigating authorities.

The Seoul court said that as a result of the reporters’ actions, actress Lee lost the positive image she had worked hard to build and her career also suffered a setback.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)