A public hearing in the Supreme Court was broadcast live on the Internet and TV for the first time in the history of the Korean judiciary on 21 March 2003. After that first experience， discussions about televising the trial process have taken place， including discussions about employing broadcasting not only of Supreme Court trials but also of Lower Court trials.

Section 109 of Korean Constitutional Law provides the right to open trial as a fundamental right of the criminal defendant; section 57 paragraph 1 of the Korean Court Organization Act also provides the principle of open trial. However， under section 59 of the Korean Court Organization Act， broadcasting during the deliberation of a trial is prohibited in principle， so trial broadcasting currently occurs for very few cases in practice.

While broadcasting trials has a risk of infringing the personal rights of the defendant and litigant， there are several benefits of broadcasting the trial process to the public. For example， it significantly empowers the public in terms of guaranteeing the public’s right to be informed and improving the public’s general knowledge and understanding of the law.

In addition， court broadcasting is able to play a positive role in modifying and transforming the law according to social demand (necessities). For those reasons， broadcasting the trial process would deliver meaningful and productive results to the judiciary of Korea， more than could be obtained from keeping the current traditional (and passive) doctrine of open trial. Therefore， it is necessary for the Korean judiciary to develop the institutional and legal devices to implement court broadcasting， as well as to prepare control measures to minimize the possible side effects.