[Anchor]
A recently introduced bill that would make recording a phone call without the other party's consent punishable by up to 10 years in prison is stirring controversy.
Users who need phones with call-recording features for their work have pushed back, asking whom the law is meant to serve.
Reporter Yang Mi-jeong reports.



[Reporter]
An amendment to the Protection of Communications Secrets Act was recently introduced in the National Assembly.

The bill stipulates that recording a phone call without the other party's consent could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.

Its core is a new clause added to the current law stating that 'a participant in a conversation may not record the conversation without the consent of all other parties to it.'

Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party, who sponsored the amendment on the 18th, explained its purpose: "Call recording is sometimes a means of self-defense for the vulnerable, but it is often abused as a tool of intimidation," adding that "because it can infringe on the right to privacy and personal rights, it should not be permitted indiscriminately."

Public opinion on the bill, however, has been nothing but frosty.

The backlash is especially fierce among users who have stuck with Samsung Galaxy phones and the like because call recording is essential to their work.

Their position is that if Galaxy's 'automatically record all calls' feature, a key point of difference from the iPhone, disappears, there is no longer any reason to use a Galaxy phone.

If the bill passes, the domestic smartphone industry is also expected to take a hit.

[Interview (by phone): Mr. A / Samsung smartphone user]
- "I absolutely have to record calls because of my work. The biggest reason I use a Galaxy is automatic call recording, and if that becomes illegal, there's no reason to insist on a Samsung phone. Ten years in prison just for recording a call? That's absurd."

On top of that, the bill would wipe out the positive functions of call recording, such as public-interest whistleblowing, protection against false accusations and exposing workplace abuse, while also restricting the right to know and freedom of expression and potentially saddling people with unjust civil and criminal liability.

While it is positive from the standpoint of privacy protection, there are effectively no safeguards against the many side effects that would follow.

[Interview (by phone): Shin Dong-woo / Attorney]
- "If this bill passes and recordings made for whistleblowing, such as exposing workplace abuse, or for public-interest reasons come to be treated as illegally obtained evidence, there will be many more cases in which it is difficult to establish the substantive truth. And because the penalty provision imposes only imprisonment, with no option of a fine, on the person who made the recording, major repercussions are expected."

Until now, call recording has been a useful tool for preventing serious crimes such as voice phishing, fraud, intimidation and verbal abuse.

Critics say more careful deliberation is needed so that this bill, introduced without national consensus, does not go down as a bad law.